Bleeding Out
by Avery Tanner
Summary: Bella begins her Junior year of High School in Forks, WA. She immediately notices Alice Cullen, the energetic youngest sister of the Cullen brood. As their feelings come out, Bella has to contend with the things a young, possibly gay, teen is faced with every day, as well as a whole new world of violence and intrigue. Rated M: Brutal violence, strong language, strong sexual content
1. Pressure

**Fair Warning to All: This is an Alice and Bella love story. It deviates from the original in more than the obvious ways. For instance, the vampire physiology is different in several key ways, i.e. No more sparkling, or insane regeneration (this will be explained later, and in more scientific ways.) The content is rated M, and features descriptions of strong, brutal violence, strong language, and strong sexual content. It is intended for a mature audience only. Enjoy.**

"Who is he?" I asked again, staring at him. My throat was dry, and I could feel blood dripping down my esophagus into my stomach. The doctor _had _warned me not to speak. The pale man in front of me on the chair had his fingers entwined in front of his mouth, and his elbows resting on his knees. His eyes were nearly pitch-black, and his voice came out in a growl.

"I don't know." He looked like he was about to come out of the chair, and go through the window. I tried to burrow further into the pillows of my hospital bed. A long silence ensued where he sat like a statue, and I listened intently to the beeping of my EKG machine. I watched dust descend from the ceiling and fall onto his shoulders. It was almost peaceful.

Almost.

Suddenly he shot up, sending the chair flying back into the wall, smashing it to bits. He was out the door in a second, leaving me without a word. I tried to sit up, to see where he had gone, but my pelvis had been broken, and I felt it crack in protest. The pain shot through in sharp waves, knocking me over, and sending me toppling out of the bed. I used my arm to brace myself, but it was already broken, and the added weight sent bone splintering out of my forearm. I think I screamed, but I can't remember. The whole world had become black and fuzzy. From down the hall I heard what sounded like a lion's roar, and then something rip. I got a horrible feeling in my stomach, and coughed up blood.

Then the pressure started. I could feel it throughout my whole body. It was light at first, but then it became heavier, and heavier still. I could taste blood in my mouth, and I slowly felt my bones snap. The pain was so unbearable that I thought I would surely die, but then as suddenly as it had started it stopped. I blinked my eyes, but my vision was clouded, and wavering. Footsteps approached from behind me, and I tried to turn my head to see who was coming for me, but I couldn't move anything. I prayed it was her. Please God, let it be her. A man's voice drifted to my ears, it was sweet, and warm, so welcoming.

"Your ribs are broken. Two appear to have punctured your lungs. As we speak fluid is filling up your lungs, and very soon now you will be dead." I tried to look up at him, as he stepped in front of me, calmly avoiding the pool of blood forming around me, but my neck was broken too, and I couldn't move it. "What a shame, Ms. Swan, you would have been great." I tried to black out, I did, but I couldn't. Maybe I should go back, tell it all from the start. One last memory before I die.

"Class, say hello to Isabella Swan, she's from Flagstaff, Arizona." I cringed slightly at my teacher's misinformation.

"Phoenix." I mumbled, instantly regretting my decision to speak up. He looked at me blankly and blinked like he'd misunderstood something crucial to the whole class.

"Excuse me, Ms. Swan?" He said, adjusting his glasses.

"Um, Phoenix, I'm from Phoenix, not Flagstaff." I considered adding an obligatory "sir," but I doubt he'd care much, if at all. Every single person in the classroom had already lost interest in this spectacle, including me.

"Oh, yes, of course. Well, have a seat Ms. Swan." I nodded, and sat down in the back of the classroom, ignoring the few lingering eyes on me. They were girls' eyes mostly, trying to decide if I was a threat I suppose. They all eventually decided I was not, and returned to looking at the front of the room, towards the teacher. However, one guy had kept his eyes on me, making me feel supremely uncomfortable. He had dark, curly hair and dark eyes, he was handsome, but looking at me so much was getting creepy. I tried to ignore him and focused on class, but by the time it was over, he'd kept looking at me every few seconds, making my first period really weird. As the bell finally rang I gathered my things and began to funnel out of the room with everyone else only to wind up near to the bug eyed guy who'd been staring at me all class.

"Hey?" He said, adjusting his gait so he was right next to me. I tried to ignore him, looking over to my left at the tree line. "Hey, Isabella, right?" Fuck, now I had to respond.

"Hey, and it's just Bella." I said, hardly looking at him. He smiled and extended his hand, I gave it a quick shake, and let it drop back down. He almost looked like he was about to keep hold of my hand, and skip to class with me.

"Oh, Bella. Alright. I'm Mike!" Mike, okay Mike, go away now please. From the look he was giving me, it looked like he was about ready to screw me right then and there, but I wasn't in the mood to be flopped around on for a half an hour. I sighed, and kicked myself for having such negative thoughts about a boy I barely knew; maybe he was just trying to be nice. "What's your next class?" Mike asked, trying his hardest not to look at my chest.

Suspicions: confirmed.

"I don't know," I said, unfolding my schedule to see if I could answer his question. "Hm…Government." I said, hardly caring that he was still staring at me. He put his hands in his pockets, threw back his shoulders, and groaned.

"Well, maybe we'll have another class together." As the sound of the first bell rang, Mike turned his head toward the main building. "Well, I'll see you later, maybe at lunch?" He said, with a wave, departing.

"Yeah, maybe." I muttered, hoping I didn't see him at lunch. I'd never really had a boyfriend before, but I was no stranger to some harmless flirting. What _he_ was doing, however, wasn't flirting, it was more like observing, and it was creepy. Government was an okay class, pretty slow, but no real complaints about it, besides the fact that the chairs were probably meant for a toddler. My next to classes, Trigonometry and Spanish, passed without a hitch. I'd always been good at math, and even Spanish isn't _that _tough, as long as you keep your head down. Lunch came along slowly and just about out of nowhere. The bell in Spanish rang, and everyone instantly bolted to the cafeteria, getting into groups almost instantaneously.

I grabbed a bottle of water and an apple and scanned the room. It was a big area, with a high ceiling and a large number of tables. It smelled like bleach and pizza sauce, but overall, was serviceable if not at all pleasant. I looked around for a place to sit, and saw Mike waving his hand at me; I passed over him at first but, for lack of a better place to park myself, sat down in the open chair across from him, between a boy and girl.

"Hi!" Mike said, in perfect unison with the guy to my left. I nodded to Mike, and looked at the guy next to me who had said hi.

"Hey, I'm Eric," He said, saluting me with his fork, which he was using to eat spaghetti. I smiled and saluted back to him. Eric wasn't looking at me like Mike was. What a nice guy.

"Bella." I remarked simply, he smiled and nodded.

"Well, Bella, you know Mike, and that young lady behind you is Jessica." I turned around, and saw a small brunette smiling warmly at me, but with a sort of suspicious look in her eye. She took my hand and shook it.

"Hey, Bella, I'm Jessica Stanley." I nodded, thinking back.

"Yeah, I think you were in my Spanish class last period." I said, not failing to notice her giving me a quick look up and down. I wondered if every girl in that school was as worried about my ability to threaten them as the few I had encountered. Things very quickly turned into a meet and greet. Here's a person, you say your name, they say theirs', and then you shake hands. It turns out Mike was fairly popular, and I was being recruited. The final face of our little group was a girl named Angela, and Angela, as it would very soon become apparent, was the last face I cared about. Mike laughed at a joke Eric had told, and then smiled, pointing over my shoulder.

"And this is Angela!" He said, through a mouthful of spaghetti. I turned around and my eye's drifted over and past Angela, right to a group of people who could have been super models. Angela smiled and said her full name, I returned with my own name, and all the while I barely took my eyes off of them. They were five. They all had pale skin, and dark hair. One was a huge boy, who could have been late 20's, and he was all muscle. The second was a tall, beautiful woman with long blonde hair, and a body like an hourglass. Third, we had a shorter guy, not short, just shorter than guy number one. He was stacked with muscle too, but in a less noticeable way, and had curly brown hair. Gentleman number four shared most of boy number three's features save for the height. Finally, we had a girl. I don't want to give her a number, because it seems so…meaningless that way. She was gorgeous, well, they were all gorgeous, but she was something else. She had a short pixie haircut, and she was small in every way. I couldn't tell exactly, but she looked like she was bouncing up and down.

The whole group was sitting at a table; the boys were sitting down on the bench, no lunches, no backpacks, just unopened bottles of water like they were at a restaurant waiting for a meal. The tall girl was sitting on the edge of the table pointing at one of the boys and saying something I couldn't hear, and the pixie girl, I'd call her Tinker Bell if she was blonde, was standing in front of the other girl, laughing about something.

"Bella?" I finally heard practically the whole group shout at once. I turned around, and Angela, Mike, Jessica, and Eric were all staring at me looking like I'd just disappeared and reappeared. I blinked at them and tried to hold back my fierce blush, to no avail.

"Yes?" I asked blankly. Jessica laughed.

"So you've seen them." She nodded her head towards the group I'd been staring at. "The Cullen's. Local celebrities." I nodded dumbly and Eric chuckled. Jessica continued.

"They've been around for a few years now, very mysterious family. The dad's a doctor at the local hospital, some sort of trauma surgeon, and a general physician too." I looked at her for a second with an eye brow raised. I didn't know too much about medicine, but I knew having two specialties was a little like having identical triplets, not unheard of, but pretty rare. "Yeah, and the kids, all five of them are just as drop dead gorgeous as their father. As for the mother, I don't know."

"You seem like you know a lot about them." I said, finishing my apple, finally. Eric chuckled and patted Jessica's shoulder.

"Yeah, well Jess here is interested in the middle brother, Edward." I looked over at them again, and picked out Edward as being the middle heighted one. "But, unfortunately for her, none of 'em date. Religion and all that." Eric concluded his statement with a nod, and then returned to his conversation with Mike. Jessica blushed and looked down at her half eaten lunch. I got the feeling everyone at this table had at one point or another tried to score a date with one of the Cullen siblings.

"What about the girl? The short one?" I asked, trying not to look like I was staring at her, but I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Her features were sharp, and she was skinny as a post. Skinny like the girls you see in movies. Christ, she was beautiful.

"Alice." Someone from behind me said. Jessica, probably. Alice. It fit her. Suddenly the bell rang and I was roused from my staring. I stood up and grabbed the remnants of my lunch, when the little Bella in my head who up until then had been reading a book in a big comfy chair, sat up and raised an eyebrow. I looked around and saw, who else, but Alice Cullen looking right at me. We had a brief staring contest, and then she and her siblings departed, leaving me holding an apple core and a water bottle in my hands like they were the only tangible things in the world.

"Alice," I repeated quietly. I don't know, but I could have sworn I saw her smile on her way out the door.

I wandered into my house in something of a daze. It was a humble little place on the side of the road in Forks, Washington, where I had been shipped off to after my mother decided she wanted to be alone with her new boyfriend, and I happily obliged. My new guardian, Charlie, my father, was a nice guy and just about a third of the police force in Forks. He and I had never been really close, and he'd mostly been absent for the better part of my childhood, but still, he wasn't a bad guy by any stretch of the imagination. The house itself was nice enough, paid for by some loan firm, which was being paid by a credit card company. It was the perfect size for a family of two, but for just my father all by himself, it was way too big. It served to remind me of how horrible I was for not coming to visit him more often, or at all.

I walked into the small, poorly outfitted kitchen and stood in front of the sink for a moment. I gripped the edge of the counter and felt my knees weaken. Between all the faces and names of today, one name stood out: Alice Cullen, and that name was accompanied by one face, and one pair of legs, and one pair of eyes, and one pair of perfectly small breasts. My knees began to shake, and my grip tightened on the counter's edge. I thought that if I removed my hands from the counter top, I would have fallen down, and in all honesty, I probably would have. I could feel a wet spot growing progressively larger and wetter in my panties. I checked the clock on the wall, and smiled. I had three hours left before Charlie came home. Now I don't know if there is a God, but just in case there is, I thanked it for that tiny miracle. I was halfway up to my room when I heard the door open.

"Bella? Honey? I'm home." Charlie's voice called out from the front room. Fuck. I don't know if there's a God, but if there is, he or she or it, is a real asshole.

"Yeah, Ch- dad, I'm here." I was trying my best to keep the tremor out of my voice, but all I could think of was Alice Cullen. Beautiful Alice Cullen. She was so small, and her pale skin practically radiated light. No! I had to stop. Charlie was here, and I couldn't keep this up, or he'd notice it through my jeans. Fuck. I was practically praying it wasn't going to get that bad. Calm down, Bella. Calm.

"Well come down here honey, I've got a surprise for you." Of course not. Why _would_ he give me the simple "Okay honey, go ahead and return to whatever you were about to do alone in your room for several hours." I groaned quietly and walked down the hall to the mirror to make sure my jeans weren't showing anything. Satisfied that they weren't, I walked downstairs to see my father standing happily in the mud room holding something behind his back. I tried to look happy, and I think I was doing pretty well with the whole affair.

"Hey, dad, home early I see." I muttered, not knowing rather or not to hug him, or shake his hand or…or what. I was never very good with him.

"Just for a minute, I've come to give you something." He was practically beaming. Charlie has always been fairly quiet, like me, and he usually has a dour look about him, but at this exact moment, here he was, looking like he'd just found Jesus, and it turns out the sneaky handyman was just in the cupboards this whole time.

"And what is that?" I asked, feigning interest. Normally, I'd be thrilled to get a gift. I love receiving and giving gifts, quite frankly, but right now I wasn't in the mood for that. What I _was_ in the mood for was Alice Cullen. Beautiful little Alice Cullen. Sliding between the sheets, her sweet lips kissing down my stomach- No! Bad Bella! I tried to concentrate on what my father was saying. Something about a truck from some old acquaintance.

A truck!

I was standing outside with keys in my hand, staring at a red pick-up truck! My father had secured me transportation! I smiled at him, and gave him a hug, still barely aware of my exact actions. The next few minutes went by in something of a blur, with me gratefully accepting the gift, and smiling, and hugging him. Finally, my father climbed back into his squad car and left for his final few hours policing the dangerous, crime ridden filth that was the city of Forks on a Tuesday afternoon. As soon as he was out of the driveway the smile dropped from my face, and I tossed the keys onto the counter top. I was happy about the truck, thrilled even, but there was more to do than marvel at my used automobile.

I bolted up the stairs and had my pants off before I was even in my room. I kicked them off into the bathroom, and jumped underneath the covers of my old bed that Charlie had brought over from his last house. I slid my panties down to my ankles and maneuvered my hand downwards. I thought of Alice. Her sweet lips kissing my neck, as she slipped a finger inside of me. I moaned, maybe in the fantasy, maybe in reality. I rubbed the small button at the top of my slit, biting my covers to muffle the moans. Christ, I'd seen the girl for a fraction of a thirty minute lunch break, and I was already having sexual fantasies about her. I'd never even been interested in a girl before, but Alice was so…angelic. I had to have her. It wasn't love, not right now and probably not ever, considering I'd never tell her I liked her. Or wanted her. Or wanted her to want me. _Or_ wanted her to slip her sweet tongue inside of me. I was getting close now. It was like I was 32,000 feet above the ground in an airplane, and sticking my head out the window.

Ding.

Oh please God, no.

Dong.

Fuck you, doorbell.

I slipped two fingers inside of myself, and my back arched. I think I may have screamed a bit. Paroxysms of ecstasy racked my body. And after what had two be two consecutive orgasms, I flopped onto the bed, and lay there. The world was quiet, and I was content. My plane was now soaring at cruising speed, and life was good. I moved my legs slightly and my thighs moved into what was essentially a pool of my own…juices sounds so disgusting, but the actual name for it is too medical, and removes the romance from it. Well whatever it is, my thighs were now very infirmly stewing in it, as I was in my own sweat. I needed to wash off a bit. I sat up, and kicked the covers off, but moving my legs so fast sent shivers up my spine, and thoughts of Alice Cullen through my parts. Damn it all, my plane was going to hit some turbulence now.

Ding dong.

Shit! The doorbell! I jumped out of bed, and stumbled into my bookshelf, grabbing it for support. I looked in my mirror, and saw that my shirt was wet from a combination of sweat and saliva from where I'd been biting it. I ran to my closet and threw on a new shirt; grey, to match the weather. I slipped on some sweat pants as well, since the sight of my wet, and throbbing womanhood might scare away any Jehovah's Witness who had come to my door. I dashed from my room, and skidded to a halt in front of the bathroom. My fingers were still covered in the juices of my fair sex. I rinsed them off in the sink, and with towel still in hand, ran downstairs to my doorbell. Checking myself in the full body mirror that was in my mud room, I decided I looked pseudo-presentable, like I'd been napping, and opened the door. My plane was settling down now, about ready to land, but the landing gear was faulty, and wouldn't engage. We began to plummet. At the door, soaked in rain and with a sprocket wrench in hand I discovered Alice Cullen's beautiful amber eyes looking up at me.

Passengers: We have just lost cabin pressure.

**Author's Note: I hope you all liked the first chapter. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, and if it should continue.**

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner**


	2. Amber

**Thank you to the four lovely guests, who at the time of writing are the four who have reviewed, YourPeepingTom, Umbra8191 and Andraste's arse for favorite-ting, and to Andraste's arse, BeckyLou20, BoroBred, devilkatkiller, michelleokane27, Milink, and SilverCrusader for following me. An extra thanks to anyone who reviews, follows, or favorites after I've finished. The support is wonderful, and I hope it continues.**

My first impression of Alice Cullen at my front door was that rain, that ubiquitous torrential downpour that gave Forks its reputation, made her look like she was carved out of marble, so slick and wet was she that the rain was just sliding off of her. I was stuck staring for a moment. I unabashedly took her in. The short, almost black, pixie haircut sticking to her head, with water droplets falling off of her bangs, her nearly white skin wet, and dripping as well. Her clothes, a grey sweater, and a black pair of jeans that clung so snugly to her legs, were soaked through as well, and I could see the outline of a bra beneath her sweater, and even the outline of her breasts. I only looked at her like that for a moment, for I felt that any longer would cause me to lose consciousness. For the few seconds I was looking at her she had a weary frown on her face, and I pitiful, puppy dog look in her eyes.

"Hey?" She said, waving her left hand, and pointing the sprocket wrench, in her right hand, to the north. "My car got a flat a half a mile up the road, and I seem to be short a jack, and," She used the wrench to scratch her head, making her hair messy and beautiful in every way. "My cell phone seems to be missing." I smiled at her, hoping I looked good enough to this angel.

"With the jack?" I asked, teasingly. Like I said, I wasn't bad at flirting, but normally I wasn't so brash about it. However, being as I was probably asleep upstairs, and this was just a pleasant dream, I decided _why the hell not?_ Alice thought for a moment, and then smiled coyly.

"Along with the Ninth Legion and most of the copies of London after Midnight." She said it through a laugh, and I swear my heart almost broke, so perfect was the sound. Her voice was beautiful on its own, but when you added the bell like sound of her laugh, I could die of desire. Here stood this girl, soaked to the bone, and making references to Ancient Roman mysteries, and a movie from the 20's, and I hadn't even invited her in.

"Please," I said, stepping aside. "Come in, I'll…" I trailed off as she walked in, and I felt knees get weak. Her butt…oh God, her perfect butt. "Towel! I'll get you a towel." I shut the door, and watched her walk to the kitchen. The sleeves of the sweater were up to her knuckles, and she rapped her fingers against the kitchen counter, before turning around.

"I'll wait here, the rug and all." She said sweetly, indicating the brown, matted rug of Charlie's house. She was even polite.

"Oh, yeah! Of course. I'll be right back." I was halfway up the stairs before I turned on my heels, to see that those beautiful amber orbs of hers had followed me up the stairs. "The phone's on the wall, by the oven." I pointed in the general direction and hurried upstairs. My heart was slamming in my chest as I reached the linen cupboard. I wasn't dreaming. Alice Cullen was in my house, being impossibly cute, wet, and looking for a phone. I snatched up a towel, and ignored my reflection in the bathroom mirror as I ran back downstairs. Alice was standing in the kitchen, just in the process of hanging up the phone.

"Any luck?" I asked, a part of me hoping that she'd had no luck, and that she'd have to wait out the rainstorm here with me. I handed her the towel.

"No, no one's answering. Thank you." She said, throwing the towel on her head, and rubbing her hair. Her arms were so slender, even fully dressed and soaked in rain she couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds. I stood back, and propped myself up against the counter top, watching her dry off.

"So, what now?" I asked, tapping my fingers against my thighs. "I take it you aren't about to walk home in the pouring rain, and I don't exactly have a jack." She looked at me with the towel around her neck, and her hands on either end of it.

"Well, how about introductions?" She teased, holding her right hand out. "Alice Cullen." I took it, and shook. She was so small, no taller than five feet, but she was strong, and that caused me no small surprise. What really threw me was her skin. It was soft, and smooth. I wouldn't even have noticed it was touching me, with a touch as light as that, had it not been so cool. Not cold, not like ice, nothing like that. Her hand was just, colder. Like her body temperature was a few degrees too low, and yet I couldn't help but imagine her hand against my cheek, pushing back my hair. I tried to think of only that, but my mind wandered to the more pleasurable things her hand could be doing.

"Bella Swan." I said, smiling at her, and reluctantly letting go of her delicate fingers. She nodded.

"I know, everyone in Forks knows! Charlie Swan's daughter, the big city girl from Phoenix. It's a little like having a celebrity in town." She was rocking back and forth on her heels, with her hands behind her back. She was always moving. Tapping her fingers, or bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Are you teasing me?" I asked dumbly. She only smiled and shrugged.

"Of course not! Your name's been all over the school today. You're famous." I blushed and Alice giggled. My stomach did a back flip, and I nearly collapsed. The sound of her giggle was like a wind chime, so sweet and melancholic that I could hardly stand the idea that anyone else would ever be able to hear it.

"Yeah," I said, rubbing my arm, suddenly being nervous about her. "I've probably shaken more hands today than ever before." She smiled, and nodded, like a mother, satisfied that her child's first day at school had gone well.

"Make any friends?" She _was_ teasing me!

"I guess so. Mike, and Jessica, and some other people too, but I don't remember all the names. I hardly remember my classes." Alice giggled again, and my heart melted a little bit more.

"The Jessica that always stares at Edward?" Alice asked bluntly, holding her hand up a little to indicate Jessica's height. "Yay high, brown hair, shifty eyes?" I tried to cover my mouth, but it was too late and I laughed loudly, bending over a little. The weirdness of the day being punctuated by a short, soaking wet girl standing in my kitchen, holding her hand _above_ her head to indicate someone's height. Alice, thankfully laughed a little with me, and I composed myself in time to nod to her statement.

"Yes, that one." Alice smiled, but her eyes looked curious.

"And Mike? He seemed to be looking at you…" She trailed off, and I blushed. I waved my hand, trying to make the uncomfortable subject go away. "Are you and he…?" She trailed off again, and my blush increased considerably.

"No!" I said. "No, no, no! He and Jessica share a penchant for staring." Alice giggled, and the curious look in her eyes dissipated. She clapped, and bounced up and down a little.

"Well, Ms. Swan. What do you recommend we do? Not having a jack, or a person to call between the two of us." She though for a moment, as did I. The rain was still pouring, and I doubt staying here would be an option. Suddenly she snapped, like Colombo figuring out the answer to some great mystery. "There wouldn't happen to be some sort of lucky happenstance in which that lovely red pick up outside is yours, would there?" I lit up, ignoring the fact that I had totally forgotten about my new truck.

"Yes!" I said, grabbing the keys from behind me, and holding them up to her in triumph. She smiled and gave me a little golf clap. I noticed that her teeth were perfect, white, pearls. Beautiful, like the rest of her.

"Well then, if you're not too busy, would you be kind enough to give me a ride?" I smiled, trying to hide my fairly obvious excitement.

"Happy to." I said, but looking down I held my finger up. "Mind if I change first?" Alice chuckled, looking at my sweat pants and t shirt that was clearly too big for me. She smiled warmly and shrugged.

"You look lovely already." I blushed and started stuttering, like a metronome the stutters came out. All this girlish shyness only made Alice smile wider. I was about to say something when someone knocked on the door. Alice stopped and looked at me; I shrugged and walked over to the mud room. Alice was in tow, marveling at the fact that someone was at my door. The knock came again, louder this time. I opened the door a crack to see another Cullen at my door, his eyes nearly black. It was the taller brother. The one with all the muscles.

"Hello!" He said to me with a wide grin. His voice was booming and powerful, not at all like the angel's behind me. "I'm Emmett, Alice's older brother. She around?" Emmett smiled at me again. I could see his perfect muscles showing through his t shirt. Body builders, look at your idle and tremble.

"Yes, actually." I said, opening the door and revealing the lovely Ms. Cullen who stood behind me, twirling a sprocket wrench. Alice looked at Emmett with a combination of annoyance and murderous intent. I wondered if Alice would attack her brother, the look in her eyes was so angry, but it only lasted a flash and then she smiled.

"You got my call, Em?" She asked. I knew she already knew the answer, else why would he be here? My mind suddenly went to the outlandish possibility of him also having a flat tire, but I waved it away. Emmett looked like the kind of guy who would have a jack in his car. Hell, I imagined his car being so massive that he could have another car within his car. Picture a Prius in the back of a 4x4, and you get the idea.

"At the behest of Edward, I came." He said, with a bow, clearly making fun of Alice's vocabulary, which I found quite infectious, and intriguing. Alice narrowed her eyes.

"So the command came from on high, and the Good Samaritan didn't come himself because?" Suddenly I got the feeling that there was a lot more going on than just Alice needing a ride. I could practically taste the venom on her tongue when she spoke about Edward.

"He was busy." Emmett said simply, breaking his teasing spree and looking at me. "So, you're Bella Swan, eh?" He asked giving me the once over that I hadn't expected. It wasn't a look of irritating attraction, or Herculean lust that I'd been getting all day, but one of judgment, as if he was merely looking out for the youngest Cullen. He smiled and stuck out his hand, seemingly satisfied my intentions were not ill.

"Well, it's a pleasure!" He snatched my hand in his and gave it a shake so powerful I thanked whatever heavens may be that my arm was still attached firmly at the shoulder. He had the same cool touch as his sister, though, though besides that they shared few features. Alice's hair was darker than his and her stature considerably less reminiscent of Achilles. In fact, even their bone structure was different. I filed the thought away for a later date.

"Thank you." I said quietly, still feeling a bit of tension from Alice. "Well, would you like to come in, or is your business urgent?" He laughed and shook his head no.

"Unfortunately, dinner is in a half an hour and it'll take at least that long to get Alice's tire fixed, so we shouldn't be any later." My heart sank a little bit, but Alice put her hand on my shoulder.

"Here," She said, handing me a piece of paper. "We'll convene some time." She said it with a hopeful tone, and from the inflections she made towards the end it almost sounded like a question. I nodded reverently, and Alice giggled. We said our goodbyes, and they began the walk out to Emmett's car, which was a large red jeep, so my theory was proven wrong. When Alice had her hand on the door, she turned to me and waved, and I blushed, noticing she still had the towel. She at once noticed it as well and jogged back.

"Sorry, Bella. For the trouble, and all that." She said with a smile handing me back my towel, now wet. I waved my hand and shook me head, taking up her offering.

"Don't worry about it, I was happy to help." I said, throwing the towel over my shoulder and giving her a heartfelt smile. She beamed at me and bounced up and down a few times.

"Well thank you, then." She was about to turn around when she stopped and looked me dead in the eye. "Please, use that number?" She asked, in a pleading sort of way. I picked the paper out of my pocket and showed it to her as if to say _I haven't discarded it, don't worry._

"Of course I will. As long as you promise not to stare at me." I said with a giggle, hoping she'd get the reference to Mike and Jessica. She laughed with me and shrugged, back pedaling towards the jeep a little bit.

"No promises." She said, turning around and almost skipping to the car. As the jeep pulled out of the driveway two things became instantly noticeable: It was no longer raining, and Alice Cullen had been flirting with me.

My body must have went on some sort of autopilot feature, because I got a head rush, and suddenly I was back inside the house, with my back pressed against my front door, a smile on my face, and the towel up against my nose. I inhaled once, slowly, and smiled. She had a faint smell. It was heavenly. She smelled like a thousand different things, none of which I could name. I hadn't gotten close enough to smell her when she was here, but now somehow the scent hung everywhere. Even on me. I sighed, contently, and slid down the door, plopping myself on the tiled floor. I removed the note she had written me from my pocket, and unfolded the delicate paper. I looked at it, and in beautiful, curved handwriting I saw a message that would have raised the dead. Her name, brilliantly written, and followed by ten digits that may as well have been Egyptian for my current ability to read them adorned the white paper. I put the message between my hands and laughed a little bit at the absurdity of my day. Then a thought struck me and I got up, and journeyed the endless distance to my kitchen. I looked around and saw that no paper was anywhere to be found, and Alice hadn't come in with anything but a wrench and the clothes on her back.

Alice Cullen had come to my house, flirted with me, and given me her number, which she had already had prewritten in her pocket, all under the pretence of a popped tire. Her coming to my house made sense, considering it was on the edge of town, and if her car had gotten a flat within a mile of the house, it would have been the closest one, but it was all still very curious. And then there was the business with Emmett. He got here in a heartbeat, and when he did arrive Alice seemed mad that he'd come, not glad that she wouldn't have to take a ride from a girl she barely knew. I decided that this would all come up the next time I saw her. I'd sit her down and grill her for information on just what she was doing.

I spent most of that night with a hand in my sweat pants, and dreams of Alice Cullen in my head.

**Thank you again for reading, dear fellows. I wasn't going to post this until Monday, but due to the reaction, I figured a quicker update is better. I'd love to hear any thoughts you have through the review section, or a PM. **

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner**


	3. Sunlight

**In response to an accusation that Bella is a pervert, she is not. She's a 17 year old girl, who's found another person that really lights her fire. Having needs brought on by sexual attraction is not perverted, it's human. How many of you have ever seen a random girl or guy on the subway, gone home, and used their image to fulfill your needs? That's what I thought. **

I believe now is a good time for me to mention a few things. Not important things to this wicked yarn I'm winding, but important things all the same. First, I never considered myself gay, or a lesbian, or anything like that. The thought had never even occurred to me, honestly. There'd been a few boys who I'd seen and said to myself _I wouldn't mind him knowing the ins and outs of my anatomy,_ but I'd never really made a move. There'd even been this one guy, Ben Riley, he and I went to a dance together we kissed, but we felt that it wasn't going anywhere so we split up. That was the extent of my love life, up until the moment that Alice Cullen pirouetted into my world. It was instantaneous the way I began to feel, it wasn't love, to call it such would be erroneous, but it was something. The dreams I had that night, following her entering my home, were fueled by sex and hormones. I won't describe them to you, because anyone above the age of 12 has had the sorts of dreams I've had. To the point, I've never considered myself the least bit gay, but Alice Cullen was a rock-star, a goddess walking around in human form. I didn't know at the time whether or not I was gay, but I knew I had to have her.

Secondly, I was not ever close to my family. Charlie and I were similar, but being similar to someone doesn't make you close to that person. Renee, my mother, and I were about as far away from similar as the North Pole was from Pluto. I didn't have any siblings because my mom decided that she didn't love Charlie enough to fornicate more than the once that was required to spawn me. Saying that my family was split down the middle, with me on the crack being pulled in both directions would be an accurate, if not exactly poetic.

Finally, the exact moment that my interest in Alice changed from sexual frustration to something more was the morning after she was at my house when I saw her at school. I pulled up in my truck, hemming and hawing as the engine chugged along, my beautiful truck. I sat in the cab, waiting, and going through my phone's contacts. I'd considered putting Alice in, but I'd decided to wait until I spoke to her. I wanted to know what was going on. She'd duped me, maybe even played with me. Showing up at my house, number already scribed onto a piece of paper, and her beautiful smile making me tremble like a nine year old in a doctor's office. I had prepped myself this morning in the mirror. Talked to myself about how she might be screwing with me, or stalking me, or something worse, or more cruel.

I kept scanning my rear view mirror, waiting to see her, not at all prepared for what I _did _see. It had snowed the night before, and then the snow melted and refroze just enough to make the roads and parking lots slick as shit, and there, walking on that frozen ground was Alice and Edward Cullen, talking in what was clearly a hushed, secretive toned. Alice looked gorgeous. She was wearing a white sweater, and a winter coat, and I could have melted at seeing the beautiful rose color of her cheeks, frozen by the cold. Edward looked up, sawing me staring, and nudged Alice. Alice's beaming smile looked like a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, especially compared to her brother's scowl. I got out of the car and began walking over to the two of them. Edward instantly became more rigid, and Alice whispered something to him, which made him leave. I stopped, and Alice bounced her way over to me, and smiled.

"Hey Bella!" She said with a smile and a little wave. I tried not to smile, or let my heart beat out of my chest. She was so beautiful, so cheery and energetic. If I forgot what I was doing for a moment or two, I hope you'll forgive me.

"Alice," I said, thankfully not smiling back. Her smile also disappeared, in the same way that a smile disappears of the face of a child who's been caught sneaking cookies before dinner. "We need to talk. No, actually. You need to talk." Maintain your scowl Bella. Maintain eye contact.

"About what?" She asked, stepping back, but keeping her beautiful eyes fixed on mine. Hey eyes, they were darker than they were yesterday.

"You showed up at my house with your number already written on a piece of paper. Emmett showed up faster than he should have been able to. Something suspect is going on and I won't stand for it, Alice." She looked down, and rubbed her hands together. She looked like she was guilty of something. For the first time, I saw Alice frown. She looked back up.

"I drove three laps around your block. I wanted to talk to you, but I couldn't figure out what to say, or if I even should talk to you. I decided to drive home, but I guess I hit a nail or something, and my tire went out." She leaned up against my truck, and I folded my arms over your chest. "I was going to just go over and ask for a phone call, maybe give you my number, and as for Emmett, I told him where I would be, and he saw my car and came over." Alice looked at me with apologies in her eyes, and smiled. "I'm sorry I lied, or mostly lied." I unfolded my arms and started to feel bad, a little bit like I'd scolded a girl for trying to talk to me.

"You could have said hey at school, you know?" I said with a smile, taking a step forward. I saw her lips start to turn up again, and she chuckled.

"You were with Jessica, and the last thing I needed was to be grilled by her about Edward." She said, with another apologetic look to me. I wanted to hug her so badly, to tell her that it was fine and-

Wait.

"What was that between you and Emmett at the door? And just now with Edward, what was that? You're walking on eggshells where he's concerned." The night before I had thought that maybe it was just because Edward was a prick, but just then when she made him leave, and he stiffened up, it looked like he was eying me. Alice looked down.

"Can we talk later?" She asked. Was Alice one to avoid questions?

"We can talk now." I said, my arms crossing again. She looked at my truck and then back at me. She and I both waited. The air was crackling between us, and she was clearly nervous. I decided to be honest. "I just want to know what's going on." Alice sighed.

"Can we go somewhere else? Not here." She asked, looking at the truck. I looked at the truck too, and took out my keys.

"C'mon." I said, unlocking the truck.

The ride away from school was strange, and uncomfortable. I had started the day with the intention of chewing out Alice, and then going about my day, but here I was in the car with a girl who was so beautiful, and sweet that she was like an illness that I had caught, and just couldn't seem to shake. She sat in the passenger seat, silently. She was probably doing the same thing I was doing and gathering her thoughts. The road went by, and she gave me instructions about going this or that way, and doing this or that to get here or there. She was quiet, and her voice was low. I didn't want her to be mad at me, but I was already mad at her. I think. Was I mad at her? A half an hour after we left school, and fifteen minutes after the classes we were supposed to be in began, Alice and I pulled up to a cliff overlooking the sea. We got out of the car, and sat on the hood. We watched the surf go by for ten or fifteen minutes before she spoke up.

"I saw you looking at me yesterday, and I saw Edward looking at you." Edward had been looking at me? "I asked him about it later, and he said that…" Alice paused and sat on her hands, bouncing up and down. "He said that he loved you." My face got red, instantly. Alice giggled nervously, and I sighed. "You know, love at first sight?"

"I've heard about that in pop songs and movies." I said, nodding more to myself than anyone else. "It's verifiable." Alice laughed again, and it wasn't nervously this time. "So Edward thinks he loves me, and that bothers you?"

"Yeah." Alice nodded and jumped off the hood of the car. "It really does. He's a good brother, but he has no idea about girls. He's possessive, and dangerous, and it gets to the point where he's basically stalking." I felt nervous suddenly. The idea of being stalked wasn't very comforting.

"So, is he stalking me?" I asked, trying to make the mood lighter. Alice didn't find it funny though, and I had inadvertently made the mood more like a two ton rock, and less like a feather. Alice shook her head.

"I told him that he wasn't allowed to go near you." Alice said, turning around and looking at the waves, splashing against the bottom of the cliff. I got off the hood of my car, and walked to her. I didn't know what to say.

"Thank you, Alice, for trying to protect me like that." Alice laughed a little bit again, and shook her head. She turned around and looked at me, with her hands behind her back. I was confused for a moment before I saw her smile.

"I wasn't protecting you," She said with a faint look back at my truck. "If I was protecting you I wouldn't be anywhere near you." She was being cryptic now, and I was beginning to feel even worse about snapping at her. She was trying to help me. She was trying so very hard to protect me, even if it was just from her weirdo brother.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean that I'm not a good friend for you to have. Why do you think I hang out with my siblings instead of gravitating towards other people?" I shook my head, and shrugged my shoulders. She chuckled and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Bella, I know this is confusing." I ran my hands through my hair and groaned.

"You're a tough girl to be around." I said with a smile. Alice smiled at me, and stepped forward. I wanted to hug her. To tell her that we were okay, and that we were friends. I dare not say more than that. Or anything. She looked around and rocked on her heels.

"Want to go back to school?" I laughed, and checked the time on my phone. We could still make it back for our last five periods.

"No." I said with another laugh. Alice beamed and hopped up and down a little bit.

"Then what?" She asked slowly. I looked over her shoulder at the ocean. It was beautiful. I walked past Alice and to the edge of the cliff.

"I've never seen the ocean." I muttered. Alice came and stood by my side. Her eyes scanned the white water with me, and she smiled.

"Never?" She asked, turning to me. I looked at her for a second, but my gaze returned to the sea.

"No, I have, but I've never _seen _it." She nodded her head knowingly. We stood there for several minutes, maybe fifteen, with her and I looking out over the ocean. She had stopped bouncing all over the place, and I had stopped my racing thoughts, and we just stared. The ocean was so calm, like the snow that we stood on it was clean, and white. It barely moved at all. "What do they call this?" I asked after what I guessed to be twenty minutes.

"The calm before the storm." She said quietly, and I nodded. The world seemed so far away just then. Like we were a thousand miles away from school or family, and just then it was just Alice, the ocean, and I. If I were a bit stupider, or maybe if my bravery was more on par with the Man of Steel, I would have kissed Alice just then, but instead I refrained.

Snow began to fall.

"Come on, it looks like we caught the calm right at the end of it." Alice nodded and we both climbed back into the truck. I turned on the heater, and we both warmed our hands, which I hadn't noticed were freezing, and she hadn't said anything. "What do we do now?" I asked. Alice shrugged, unusually quiet, at least for the short time I knew her.

"I've never skipped before. I mean, not with anyone else. Typically Jasper and I will skip a day or two here and there, but besides that, never really."

"Jasper?" I asked, the name didn't sound familiar, I figured it was her other brother, the last one whose name I didn't know. Turns out I was right.

"My brother, the shortest one." Bingo. I laughed and lounged back in my seat.

"Edward," I said, ticking off a finger, "Jasper," Another finger, "Emmett," That was three, "Alice, and…?" Only one left. Alice laughed.

"Rosalie. My sister." I put the last finger, or my thumb, down.

"And then your dad, what's his name?" I asked, remembering Jessica talk about him, but not quite remembering his name.

"Carlisle; and my mom is Esme." I'd been worried to ask about her mom, since no one had mentioned her I kind of figured the worst. She smiled at me and cocked an eyebrow.

"What's with the sudden interest in my family?" She asked coyly. I smiled at her, and said something that was probably too brash.

"I'm interested in you." Looking back on it now I feel so stupid, but it made Alice smile, and I guess that was good enough for me. She was a truly gorgeous human being. More gorgeous than any person has the right to be, and more gorgeous than I have any right to believe I could have. She took off her coat, as the heater had gotten pretty warm now, and I saw that the white sweater she wore hung off of her shoulders, revealing her tender, beautiful shoulders. God, she was so small.

"Want to go to my house?" She asked, after a few seconds. I balked and she smiled. "Good, I'll give you directions."

Alice's house was stunning. A recreation of something that you'd find on a hill sitting in Europe, overlooking a sea slowly churning with foam and salt. I could see Alice in a paper thin dress, overlooking that sea, waiting for a boat to peek the horizon, but that boat would never come. I never saw a house that made me feel anything, but this house almost brought me to tears. Alice watched me take it all in. It was looked like it was three stories, maybe four, and the white paint on the walls was peeling a little bit. There was a large garage, and the entire left side of the house was covered in windows. God, it was like seeing a palace.

"You live here?" I asked, dumbly, I might add. She giggled to herself and grabbed my hand. I don't know if you have ever had your hand grabbed by a creature as immaculate as Alice Cullen, but it's something like being pushed off the edge of a ravine into a pit of pure happiness. Even if she is cold. She led me up the stairs onto her deck, where I imagine she would look out in the mornings over the pristine nature that surrounded the house. She would hold a cup of tea and watch the animals scuttle around and then she'd go inside and, oh my lord, the inside of that house. Between a grand piano resting idly on a raised part of the floor, and a staircase trimmed with wood that could have been carved and polished by sculptors from every corner of the Earth, and with the finest hands of all time. The house was an amalgamation of several different styles, and designs. Each door was a different size and shape, the wood was carved differently in some places, it was all so…beautiful.

"Alice," I said, her hand still wrapped in mine. "You live here?" I heard her bell of a laugh, and then she released my hand. I grasped at air for a moment, before I let my eyes adjust to the strange beauty of this house.

"Alice, who's that with you?" Asked a man from the top of the stairs. The man was tall, and beautiful, much like the rest of the Cullen's. I picked him out as Carlisle right away. "And why aren't you in class?" He said after a delay. Alice looked up at him and made a facial expression I've never seen, it was half pleading, and half angry, but it was only there for a second. "Come up here for a moment."

Alice looked at me and winked with confidence. I smiled at her and she was up the stairs. Her and her father went back to where he'd come from, and talked quietly or at least quietly enough so that I didn't hear them, which was a good sign. I walked around on the carpet, looking at the piano. I'd never played, but I'd always had designs to. I walked up and touched the keys.

"Do you play?" Came a masculine voice from behind me. Now, here's where I go off on a bit of a tangent. As far as I was concerned, I didn't care for Edward Cullen. He was always scowling, and looking at me angrily, like I had violated some law just by breathing, and then Alice says that he loves me? Well, that made me feel even more disconcerted with him. The stalking comments made me feel even more uneasy, and then when you add in the fact that I thought I'd seen him looking at me once or twice when I was walking around school that first day, well, it just made me feel weird. When I turned around, much to my relief, it was not Edward. It was Jasper.

"Oh! No, I never got the chance to learn." He smiled at me and I felt instantly calm. He chuckled and walked up to the piano. "Do you?"

"No, but Edward does. He's taught me some, but I wouldn't say that I play. Would you mind terribly if I close the blinds, I get terrible migraines." The calmness radiated in me, and I nodded coolly. It was getting really bright outside anyway, as the sun broke through the clouds.

"Not at all. So, why aren't you in school?" I asked teasingly, Jasper chuckled and played a few high notes.

"Why aren't you?" I blushed and sat down at the piano, resting my hands on my thighs. Jasper got off the dais and went over to a panel in the wall. He clicked a few buttons and massive blinds spread out over the entire left wall, closing out the sun. The white walls still gave the room a nice, sunny feel, despite there being no natural light in the room.

"Alice asked and well…" I trailed off and Jasper's raspy voice let out another chuckle.

"And you couldn't say no. Few can." We both laughed, and I nodded.

"She and her smile are a vice." I said, with my hand in front of my mouth, avoiding showing my laughing face. Jasper joined me in the laugher.

"I've found that vices and virtues aren't that different." Jasper sat down next to me and struck a couple of notes.

"You and Alice speak alike." I remarked, and started lightly playing Mary had a Little Lamb.

"She's my best friend." He said, like he was remarking on the fact that the sky is occasionally blue. He joined me in playing Mary had a Little Lamb in a lower key.

"You two look the most alike of all your siblings," I said, laughing when I struck a wrong note. "Are you twins?" He chuckled.

"Not quite. Can you play anything else?" He asked, switching songs to something I haven't played before. I shook my head no, but he kept playing the same thing. It actually sounded nice. We played for a few more minutes, and then the door opened. I turned to see Emmett and Rosalie walk in.

"Bella!" Emmett said, hopping up to the dais. "And Jasper too!" I smiled, Emmett was so nice. If I had just seen him on the street without knowing him, I might have turned and walked the other side of the street, but he was so nice, that he probably would have switched sides too, just to say hi.

"Hey." I said in unison with Jasper. "Are we all skipping class then?" Emmett nodded and stuck out his thumb in a goofy pose I never thought I'd see.

"Bingo. Oh, Bella, you haven't met Rosalie, have you?" I turned around on the bench, to see Rosalie standing down off the dais, smiling a cool smile. She was totally in control.

"Hey, Isabella Swan, right?" I nodded, and stood up to shake her hand. She accepted mine, gave it a curt shake, and then folded her arms over her chest. Imposing didn't quite describe what she was.

"Nice to meet you." I said, a little bit nervous of her. She was a woman, in the presence of someone who felt a lot like a little girl, but suddenly the calmness returned, and I sat back down. Suddenly Alice was sliding down the banister, and bounding up to us.

"The gangs all here!" She chirped, bouncing up to us. Emmett laughed and ruffled her hair.

"Almost," Rosalie remarked.

"Yeah," Jasper said. "Anyone know where Edward is?" Rosalie and Emmett exchanged a worried glance I almost missed.

"Not a clue," Alice groaned bitterly, looking at me with concern. I shook my head and smiled at her. Carlisle appeared at the top of the stairs and held out his hands.

"Who raised these children?" He chuckled out. It amazed me that he wasn't furious. I knew Charlie was going to be mad when I got home, if the school called. It's amazing that I was still calm, despite that implication. "Surely not me. Are all of you here?" The whole Cullen brood smiled at him and laughed. I looked at all those happy faces and smiled myself. They all seemed so happy, even Rosalie, who was so calm.

"Edward's not." Jasper said, his voice low. Carlisle looked around for him, as if he would come out of the woodwork. Alice and Carlisle exchanged worried looks, but quickly wiped them off their faces. What a strange family. Suddenly I remembered something, I leaned in to Alice.

"Hey, I forgot my phone in the truck, be right back." She nodded, and I walked out the door into the blinding daylight. I looked at the snow, covered in tire tracks, and black with dirt. Such an ugly look for something so beautiful. I walked down the stairs to my truck when I heard tires screeching. I turned to the end of the drive way to see a car skidding in. I saw Edward at the wheel, with his head down. He was going way to fast to stop before he hit me. Oh God.

I moved to get away from my truck, but I slipped on a patch of ice. My head slammed into the ground, and I felt my brain smash into the insides of my skull. There was a cracking sound when my head bounced, and I groaned in pain. Suddenly there was a sound like metal crunching, and then glass exploding. I felt cool arms wrap around me, and I was being lifted up. There were shouts of this and that, but I couldn't distinguish the words. My vision was blurry and fading in and out, I saw Emmett holding Edward, and Carlisle shouting. I didn't quite make out who was holding me before the world slipped into calming blackness. My head was throbbing and hotter than I could understand, and then I was unconscious. I think I smelled Alice.

**Third chapter down. Hope you all enjoyed it. Please review and tell me your thoughts.**

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner **


	4. Black

**Thank you again to everyone for your overwhelmingly positive response. Also, thank you to thatdamnyank for correcting my error in calling Rosalie's hair black. **

In the time I was passed out I dreamt dreams that one would expect to have when overtaken by a fever. At first it was strange things, like Emmett ripping Edward from the car, scooping off the whole side of the car to save his brother, glass cutting his arm, and metal flying bent and destroyed into the air. I saw that their skin was smoking, and if I'm not mistaken Edward had blood running out of his mouth. Then I dreamt of Alice, her throwing her tiny frame up against the car and the metal bending around it, like she was some immovable object. She wrapped her arms around me and I was inside the house in a second. Then the dreams became even stranger. Edward and Carlisle arguing, Edward suggesting that something be done about some unknown third party who may have seen something, and Carlisle denying him. Alice joined the fray too, and when that happened Edward crouched down and growled, like a cat or a dog that had been cornered. The dreams would go on like this for what felt like days.

Eventually the dreams did stop and I became slightly more aware of reality. I couldn't open my eyes, despite commanding my body to do so, they remained firmly shut. If I had been more lucid that may have scared me, but at the time I was perfectly calm. I focused instead on the cool feeling that possessed my hand. It was soft, and cool, and gave me some great comfort. Occasionally there would be other cool feelings prodding me here, or touching me there, then a warm hum, and then just the cool feeling in my hand. I focused on this for as long as I can, before I slipped back into unconsciousness. When I finally did come to the cool feeling was still in my hand, and I turned to my right to see Alice sitting in a chair with my right hand in hers. When she saw me turn she lit up.

She said something that sounded a little bit like my name, and then the word alright, so using my brilliant detective skills I figured she must have asked if I was alright. I said yes, and nodded my head, but there was still this weird hollow ringing sound in my ears. I asked her why I couldn't hear, and she smiled at me, looking terribly embarrassed. She used her left hand to lift my head off of the pillow. I had become so tangled in the pillow that it had blocked both of my ears.

"Better?" She asked, taking up my hand again, and holding it between hers. I nodded and looked around the room, trying to gather my wits. I was in a study, or maybe a library. Books lined massive shelves all around me, and the only dim light came from a doctor's lamp above my head. I turned to Alice, with a confused look in my eyes I'm sure.

"You're in Carlisle's study, Bella. You slipped and hit your head." I nodded my acknowledgement that that was indeed what had happened and then looked into her eyes; they were much lighter than they had been earlier. I leaned over and brushed her cheek with my left hand, not wanting to force her to release my right.

"Your eyes change color. So do Emmett's." I said, remembering how dark his had been earlier when he had stood with me in the living room by the piano. Alice laughed nervously and then smiled.

"Do you remember what happened?" My dreams had felt so real. Like they were memories. I wondered for a moment if they had been the truth, and why had Edward been driving that way.

"I slipped, and Edward almost crashed into me." I said, realizing that my voice sounded very hollow and groggy. Alice nodded, and then I took a leap of faith. "You saved me, you stopped the car, and Emmett tore the side off of the thing to save Edward. Or that was the dream." Alice looked down and sighed. She shook her head in what appeared to me to be despair and then she looked at me.

"That wasn't a dream." I nodded nonchalantly. "You slipped, and Edward had lost control of his car. I threw myself in front of you, and stopped the car. Then Emmett tore the door off and got Edward inside and I carried you up here. Carlisle's been taking care of you for the past few hours." I nodded again.

"Where is Carlisle?" I asked, looking around, sort of expecting him to just show up. Alice rubbed my hand and I looked back at her.

"He'll be here in a few seconds." She said, clearly feeling dread, or something like it. I smiled at her and scooted a little bit closer, careful not to fall off whatever it was I was on. I moved my left hand again to her cheek and brushed a piece of her unkempt hair behind her ear. She looked like she should have been blushing, and I smiled at her, feeling a little stupid from whatever Carlisle had me on.

"Don't worry, Alice. I'm fine." Alice smiled at me sadly and kissed my hand. That caused what clearly had to be electricity, or maybe nails, to shoot through my bloodstream. It also sobered me up quick, and I noticed I was still hooked up to an IV. I was about to ask why, when the door opened behind me.

"Alice." Came a voice, Carlisle's if I wasn't mistaken, from the now open door. Alice looked in the direction of the voice and nodded. Alice looked down to me and whispered.

"Carlisle," She wasn't calling him dad? "Is going to tell you something now Bella. He said it should be him, but if you need me, just tell him, okay?" Of course I need you Alice. Instead of saying that, what I should have said, I just nodded. She kissed my hand again and released it, walking out of my line of sight. I turned over, on what I had decided was a table with a sleeping pad on it, and looked at the doorway Carlisle was standing in and looking right back at me. Alice had already departed. His eyes were also lighter than they had been. He walked over silently, and took the seat Alice had been in.

"How're you feeling, Bella?" He asked, looking me over. "How's your head?"

"Fine, actually." I said, reaching my arm back to the spot where my head had hit. Touching it still hurt, but the throbbing was gone. "Can I sit up?" I asked. Carlisle nodded and stood to help me sit up, which was good because I was still feeling weak.

"Do you remember what happened Bella?" He seemed so preoccupied with worry. I felt bad.

"Yes." He nodded solemnly.

"Well, I guess that can't be helped. Alice insists you be told, regardless of what we think." He nodded again, and stood up to check my IV. He hummed his approval, and told me he was going to remove the needle. He did and then covered it with a bandage. "Come, let's sit." I got off the table and he pulled me up a chair from the desk on the far end of the room.

"Tell me, Bella," He said after a considerable length of time where he just sat with his fingers folded in front of his mouth. "How do you think Emmett did what he did? Or Alice?" I sat back in the chair, and thought.

"I don't know. If you and Alice hadn't told me otherwise, I would have assumed that it was just a dream." He chuckled and shook his head in futility.

"Yes, I told Alice as much, but she was adamant that you were not to be lied to. She believes you are strong enough to make up your own mind, and she has always been a good judge of character." He concluded by sitting back, and resting his arms on his legs. "Do you remember what saw when you woke up the first time, and you walked into the room down the hall?" I thought for a moment, back to Edward and Alice growling like animals.

"Vaguely," I responded, still trying to order my thoughts.

"Tell me exactly what you recall." He said sternly. Carlisle was clearly nervous. Or maybe it was defensive.

"I walked down the hall, and Edward was shouting about…about me, I think, and Alice was shouting back, then he got low, and his eyes turned black, and he…hissed, I think. He looked like a cat, ready to pounce. Alice looked the same." I thought for a moment more, but that was all I could remember. Carlisle was quiet for a moment. Something struck me. "The sunlight." I said simply. "Jasper doesn't get migraines, does he?" Carlisle chuckled.

"You're a smart girl Bella. Alice said you would figure it out." I thought for a while. Why was I so calm? "What do you think we are?" He asked it like he was asking a waitress if the dinner special had any dairy products in it.

"You're not human. Any of you." I said it like the waitress would respond yes.

"No. We are not." I was so calm.

"Then what are you?" The calmness wasn't my doing.

"You know already." Carlisle sat forward, so his face was close to mine. "Say it, Isabella."

I don't…they don't exist."

"They do. Say it." No. They didn't exist.

"No."

"Yes."

"Vampires." The word cracked the air like a whip. Everything was quiet for a while, and I was still just as calm as I had ever been.

"Yes. Are you scared?" He put a hand on my knee comfortingly, and I shook my head. I wasn't scared. Not at all.

"I'm calm. Really calm." He nodded and looked at the door.

"That is our doing." He removed his hand. "I can't give you any details on the others, they would not want me to, but I can give you the general information." I nodded. "Okay, well, I suppose we should start at the beginning. None of the people you have come to know as my children truly are." I had gathered that. "They are adoptive children. I changed Edward, Alice, Rosalie, and Emmett myself. Another vampire changed Jasper, and Esme," He paused and clenched his fist. "Was changed by another as well. We have come together because we do not feed on human blood. We feed on animals. Any questions so far?" I nodded.

"A million, but I'll let you finish." He smiled and nodded back.

"We chose to live here because in this place the sun is a rarity, and the hospital was in need of a doctor, so I chose to move us up here. We avoid the sun because it drains us. It makes us weak, and if we are in direct contact with sunlight it burns us. We're very sensitive to sunlight, but other, man made, light does not affect us." He stood up and went to the bookshelf behind me; I turned in my chair and watched him. "Now you may ask questions." I thought for a moment.

"How?" I asked simply. He chuckled at me.

"Vampirism, so far as we can tell, is a blood born pathogen. It is unique in that it is exclusive to the blood, unlike other similar pathogens. It is transferred through any amount of blood into a bodily orifice, such as the mouth, or directly into the bloodstream via interventions delivery." I thought of the IV.

"You didn't…?" He looked stunned.

"Of course not!" I smiled, hugely relieved.

"Okay, so it's something in the blood, and the sensitivity to sunlight?" He nodded and removed a book from the shelf. He handed me the book, and I opened it. The first page revealed that it was a medical journal. One page was marked by a Post-It note. I flipped to that page and read a highlighted section.

"Erythropoietic protoporphyria?" I read, having an amazing amount of difficulty pronouncing the name of the condition that was defined.

"Yes. It's characterized by an intense burning reaction to sunlight. As far as we can tell what we have is a very intense form of that. The enzymes in our bodies that help us absorb sunlight are killed by the Vampirism, so we're left vulnerable to it. Do you want to take a break? Get something to eat maybe?" I shook my head no and handed him the book, only barely understanding what he was talking about.

"No, I want to know it all," I said, taking a deep breath. "But what about the fangs, or the claws, and what about Alice getting hit by that car, or Emmett ripping the whole side of the thing off?" I was getting heated now, confused, angry. I wanted Alice. Carlisle held up a hand to calm me.

"Our cell reproduction is super charged by the virus, making us anywhere from six to twelve times stronger than we were as humans. Our muscles can tear apart, and rebuild themselves in seconds. We are also much harder to damage, and even if you managed to, our cells rebuild themselves almost instantly. The only way we can be killed is by destroying our brain or heart. Other than that, we'd rebuild too fast to be damaged or killed by anything else. Are you sure you don't need a minute to take this all in?" He asked, taking a seat across from me. I shook my head again.

"No!" I snapped. "I want to know this. Now, what about your claws, I think I saw that Edward had them, where are yours? And the eyes. His were pitch black, and your eyes change color too." He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"As for our eyes normally, they change based on when we last fed. They slowly become darker as time wears on. We can hide our claws, as you call them; by the same token we are also able to hide our teeth and our eyes." I nodded. That made sense.

"To make you able to lure your prey in." I said. He nodded, looking slightly ashamed. "Show me." I demanded. He looked at me, shocked.

"Bella…" I shook my head.

"I need to see, damn it!" I pounded my fist on my knee, and tried to keep the tears from my eyes. The calm was very quickly slipping, and I felt like I was losing my mind.

"Alright." He said. "But it will only frighten you." He stood, and pushed the chair away from him. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back. There was a quick coiling of all the muscles in his body, and almost instantaneously his fingers were tipped by razor sharp claws. I scooted back in my chair. He opened his eyes and looked at me. Oh God, his eyes. They were pitch black. No white was even visible anymore. He spoke, and I saw that every one of his teeth were razor sharp. I imagined them tearing into my neck.

"This is what we look like when we feed." I imagined Alice looking like that. The tears started to pour. His voice was deep, and terrifying. Carlisle returned to normal, and looked down at me, holding out a handkerchief. I took it, thankful that he was himself again. I wiped my eyes and tried to wrap my head around the insanity that he was telling me. The calmness was still pushing on me, but it wasn't heavy like it had been. After I finished crying, I began to laugh. He looked at me quizzically.

"So, you're vampires?" I asked. Saying it sounded so insane, and I laughed again. "Does garlic bother you?" Carlisle laughed with me and shook his head in futility.

"No," He began to laugh louder with me. "No, no garlic, or crosses, nothing like that." I nodded and began to stop laughing. Christ, this was all so insane. I thought for a moment, and Carlisle waited for me.

"And you all move very fast, too?" I asked. He nodded. I should have guessed. I remember Alice carrying me up into this room within a heartbeat from entering the house.

"Is that all?" He asked, patience rimming his voice. I shook my head no.

"What about the whole immortality thing? You know, in all the movies you are." Carlisle thought for a moment.

"As far as we know, we're not. Our hearts still beat, albeit less quickly in order to keep our bodies cool, and if our hearts still beat, we are still organic, so we should eventually die of old age, but the oldest known vampire is almost 2,000, and he still looks the same as he did when he was turned." I nodded.

"How old is Alice, or you?" He shook his head no. I figured he wouldn't tell me how old Alice is.

"I was changed in 1663." Jesus Christ. "At the age of 23." Do the math.

"Oh my God…" For some reason, that was the most amazing fact to me. Being that old…seeing that much. It took me a minute to comprehend. We sat in silence while I tried to understand. It must have been a half an hour of me sitting there, trying to wrap my mind around all of the information he had fed me. Finally, I spoke up.

"May I see Alice?" I asked. I needed her. I needed to see her. I needed to get the image of her with black eyes and furious teeth out of my head. Carlisle nodded and got up. "Wait!" I said after him, another question occurring to me. "Why are you all so good-looking?" He stopped in the doorway, his hand on the knob. He chuckled slowly, and shook his head in what appeared to be quiet sadness.

"It's like you said, to attract our prey." I shuddered and Carlisle left. I tried not to think about how easy it would have been for Alice to trap me. Or how easily she already had. I wiped my eyes and leaned back in the chair. Everything had gotten so twisted up so fast. Vampires. Jesus, vampires. Scientifically _supported_ vampires. I put my head in my hands and tried to get my breathing under control. I heard the door open on the other end of the room. I turned my head and saw Alice standing in the light of the doorway. She still looked just as beautiful as she had before I knew the truth about her. She was wearing mostly the same clothes as she had been before all this with the car, and the big reveals. The only change was that she was now in a tank top; assumedly her sweater was ripped up from the impact.

"Bella?" She was afraid. Of what? Did I still want her? Did I still want her friendship? Her love? Anything?

"Alice." Yes, I did.

"Are you okay?" I nodded, and held my hand out.

"Come here." She took a step forward, and then another. God, it was a long wait for her to reach me. It felt like hours. When she did she held her hand out to mine, and I took it. She twined her fingers through mine, and smiled at me. I still loved that smile.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I didn't mean for any of this." I shook my head.

"No, I'm glad I know. I'm not stupid, I mean, after the sixth or seventh time you were absent from school because it was sunny outside I would have noticed." Alice laughed with sadness in her eyes.

"I know, but…I could have stayed away from you. Maybe I should have." I squeezed her hand as her head shot down. She looked at our fingers, laced through each others. She smiled sadly. "I still can if you want me to." I squeezed her hand again and she looked at me.

"Would it matter, I mean would you even let me go? Now that I know?" Alice looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Yes. I would." She looked away, and began to tug her hand away. I stood up and took a step forward. She looked back at me, and I saw now that she was crying. I wrapped my arms around her, and tried to keep my own tears away.

"I'm not going anywhere," Why was she crying? Why was I? "I'm not." Alice tightened her grip on me, and put her face against my chest. God, how had everything gotten so messed up, in a day? This same time yesterday I had been so normal. I could have stayed like that, with Alice, wiping her tears into my shirt, and my own slipping down my cheeks into her hair; I could have stayed there for the night, holding her. Moving forward was hard, at that moment, impossible, but surrender felt so soothing. I was about to when Alice sniffled and looked up at me.

"It's almost two. Charlie will be expecting you." I shook my head.

"I'll call him and tell him I'm coming over here for dinner. He'll be thrilled, making friends and all that." Coming over here for dinner! Ha! I didn't even get the irony of it until I let the words hang in the air for a moment. Alice started to laugh in a helpless, nervous sort of way, and I joined in.

"You have made friends. Em, Jasper, Rosalie, and Carlisle all like you." I smiled, thankful that they were only faking the family part, and not the friendly part. Like a car, a question struck me.

"Alice, why'd you bring me here?" She looked up at me, with a confused look. "I mean, you must have known the sun was coming out, it was already a little out when we were driving over here, so you must have figured that the rest of your…" I paused, I settled with family anyway, despite there being no blood relation. "Family would be home. So why'd you invite me in? Everyone being home, and Carlisle being okay with it wouldn't have been easy to explain." Alice nodded, and put her face back against my chest. I liked her there. Cuddling me like that.

"I wanted you to know." She said after a long pause. "I didn't want our friendship to be skin deep." I was a little mad at her use of the word friendship. We'd been in each other's arms for a while now; I'd say friendship wasn't an option, albeit, it wasn't quite anything more.

"Well…thank you." The whole room was spinning. She smelled so sweet. Christ, even now, with all this, I still couldn't help but be turned on. "So, uhm, how's Edward doing?" I asked, remembering that he was in the car. Alice broke the hug and took a few steps back.

"He's alright." She started putting the chairs back, and cleaning up the table I had been on.

"But Carlisle said the sun-"

"It does, but he's fine." Alice was cutting me off. Clearly, she was mad. "He's an idiot anyway; he shouldn't have been so late. He knew the sun was coming out! Rosalie _told _him to get home!" She dug her fingers into the chair she was holding, and the wood cracked. I jumped back, not realizing that I had. She looked at me and held up her hands.

"Alice…"

"No, Bella, I'm fine." For a split second her eyes were full black. I felt my heart racing. "Bella, please. He just…" I was staring at her. Trying to slow my heartbeat. "He put you in danger, and…" I considered kissing her just then. I considered going up to her, and grabbing her by the shoulders. I considered lifting her mouth to mine and breathing her in. I pondered her interest in me, and her interest on the now half wet, half terrified insides of me. I considered locking the door, and throwing her atop the desk, tearing her panties off, and dropping to my knees. I wondered is she had hair on the beautiful mound that was her womanhood. I wondered if it would be wet, or dry, thinking of me like I was thinking of her. Was Alice considering doing the same thing to me? Lapping and licking to the rhythm of my oohs and aahs? Was she, even then, wondering if I would allow her to stick a pinky into the place where no pinky but my own had ever strayed? Alice was staring at me.

"What're you thinking about?" She asked, stepping forward, kicking the bits of wood out of her way. I blushed, to have my carnal cravings interrupted by the very subject of them.

"I've got a question." I said, realizing that I did, and thanking Yahweh, or Jehovah, or whoever was above that I didn't have to lie. "How do you know Edward would stalk me, or be a danger to me?" Alice nodded and took another step forward.

"I can see the future."

"Bullshit." Ironic, isn't it? That I accepted vampires, and the science behind them, but instantly denied the fact that my muse could see into the future.

"Charlie is about to call." Instantly my phone began to ring. Apparently someone had brought it in and set it on the floor near the table I had been on. I ignored it, and looked at her.

"No way." She smiled and nodded.

"Yes. The yarn of time is my road map." I laughed and shook my head.

"That was just good timing. Give me a real one." She giggled and took another step forward.

"About?" I thought for a moment, and then snapped my fingers. The perfect thing to predict, to prove if she could do it. "How do you think I was outside in time to save you from the car?" She took another step forward. We were almost touching now. I have to admit, she made a point.

"When will I start my period?" She blanked and I laughed. "No?" She narrowed her eyes at me and groaned. Then her eyes went black for just a moment.

"I can't predict you." I laughed. Had she just lost?

"No?" I was teasing her now, and winning. She groaned and shook her head.

"No, Edward can't read your mind either." Wait, what?

"Edward can read minds?"

"And Jasper can influence your emotions." Okay, I admit it, that last one made sense. "And Charlie is about to call again." And he did, but I ignored it again.

"Fine. You can see the future. How?" Alice laughed and began fidgeting with a thread on her tank top.

"I don't know. None of us do. We can just do things. Carlisle says that when we become vampires it unlocks things we all have the potential to do. It might even be the next evolutionary step." She shrugged, "Regardless, I haven't the slightest idea of why my power doesn't work on you." Alice and I stood like that for a while. She smelled so good. Like…there is no way to describe how she smelled. Imagine the most heavenly scent that has ever entered your nose, and then apply it to a girl…

A girl?

"How old are you?" I asked, poking her in the stomach playfully. She giggled and swiped my hand away.

"17." I groaned and she giggled again. "Oh fine, I was changed in the 20's, I think."

"You think?" Alice giggled playfully and bounced back.

"Another time. Right now you need to answer that phone call. See if you can stay here, say your car broke down, we have a lot to talk about." My phone began to ring, and Alice playfully scooted backwards, with a wink. I groaned and considered my options. Stay overnight with the family of vampires, or go home and see my father.

"You come to my house." Alice giggled.

"For dinner?"

"For the night. Sneak in through the window. If you can stop a car, you can jump ten feet to my window." Alice laughed helplessly and shrugged.

"Maybe I will." My heart did a front flip. Alice Cullen, in my room.

"Do you sleep in a bed?" I asked. "Or do you need a coffin?" She frowned and bounced up to me so she could swat me in the arm.

"We don't sleep." Well, that explains why they put me on a table, and not in a bed. "Now answer the phone!" I grabbed the thing on the last buzz of its ringer, and explained to Charlie how my second, non-existent, day of school went, and then I explained how I would be at Alice's for dinner. I snapped the phone shut and shoved it into my pocket.

"Done!" I said, crossing my arms. Alice cocked her head to the side and looked me up and down.

"You're taking all this remarkably well, are there other vampires I don't know about Ms. Swan?" God, I loved it when she teased me. Then I realized the calmness that was pushing at the edges of me had almost stopped entirely. I was taking this rather well. I shrugged.

"It probably hasn't hit me yet." No. A lot of things hadn't hit me yet.

**A big thanks to everyone! I reached 1,000 hits in my traffic, and since I use that number to measure my worth as a human being, thank you very much. Also, I am looking for someone to edit my work, so if you'd like the job, send me a PM with the reasons why you want the job, and the qualifications you have to do such a job.**

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner**


	5. Windows

**Over 2,000 hits! Thank you all very much for getting me there! **

Alice and I exited the study, her quietly worried about what might happen when we walked down the gorgeous, winding stairs, and I worried about what might happen if we did not. As we proceeded down the hallway I reflected on everything. The vampires, the insane powers, the idea that any of this was real at all was unsettling, to say the least. I stopped right before we got to the open landing of the staircase. Alice turned and looked back at me, and I looked around the hallway. Alice giggled and stepped closer to me. She extended her hand, and with a wink, beckoned me forward. I thought back to what Jasper said about the way that no one could deny Alice when she turned that smile on you. He was right. I took Alice's cool hand in my own, and my mind snapped back into reality.

Alice and I walked, hand in hand, down the stairs. I felt a little bit like Cinderella, walking down the stairs to the ball, where every pair of eyes that she had never truly met, were evaluating her. Edward sat at the piano, his hands resting on his knees. Rosalie and Emmett sat on the white couch at the far end of the room, looking nervous about me. Jasper sat on the arm of a chair with his hands folded in front of his face. Carlisle and a woman I hadn't seen before, but who I assumed was Esme, were standing by a large television talking quietly. The instant I set my left foot on the top step of the stairs every single eye in that room was glued to me. They were all a similar amber color, very light. I figured they'd all fed while I was asleep, to prevent scaring me maybe. _Fed. _Fuck. What a word!

As I descended the stairs every eye was glued to me. Jasper stood up, and walked towards the staircase. Alice sent a quick look his way and he froze. Walking on eggshells doesn't quite describe what these people (people?) were doing. Edward tore his eyes away, and looked down at his feet. I felt more than a little bad for him. After all, he thought he was in love with me, and he was probably freaking out just a little bit. My feet touched the bottom of the staircase, and no one took a breath. No one moved or strayed an inch. Edward was the first to move his head to my and Alice's hands, but he didn't say anything. The air in the room was so full of tension I could taste it. I couldn't take a breath without the thick, awful feeling of it filling up my lungs. Esme was the first to speak.

"Isabelle Swan. It's a pleasure to meet you. Is your head alright honey?" She stepped forward, looking at me worriedly. I nodded, and tried my best to smile reassuringly.

"The very same, and yes, my head is fine, thank you." Esme smiled, and pursed her lips, glancing at our hands.

"Well, c'mon, I suppose you're hungry." I thought for a moment. I was, in truth, famished, but I wasn't in the mood to eat. I shook my head, and tried to ignore Alice smiling and looking to the side.

"I am, but-" Esme shook her head.

"No 'buts,' now come on. Let's go get you fed." I looked at Alice and she nodded. I began to step forward, Alice still in hand. We walked the length of the room to Esme, who had now moved to the kitchen door. Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie went back to talking to each other, realizing that anything they had to say, or do, would have to wait. Edward however, had more determination; he stood up behind us, only to be given a glare by Alice. He sat back down, and the kitchen door swung closed behind us.

"So," Esme began, getting down a paper plate from the cupboard. "Vampires." The absurdity of her statement was not lost on me. Alice broke our hands' embrace, and leaned up against the counter. "Are you alright, sweetheart?" Esme was so nice.

"Yeah, I think I am." I smiled at Alice, who smiled back. That smile. Esme looked up at us, shook her head with a laugh, and went over to the fridge. She looked into it and made a humming sound, then shrugged and turned around.

"Take your pick, Bella," She said, flinging the fridge doors wide open with no small amount of theatricality. "I don't quite remember what, uhm…" I nodded.

"What humans eat." I finished for her, and she nodded. I stepped forward to see that the fridge was fully stocked with everything from apples to peach pie. All store bought, of course, and it looked like I was bought recently. Today, recently.

"Is all this for me?" I asked, being at once flattered and confused. Esme laughed a warm, light hearted, motherly laugh. She rubbed my back in a soothing kind of way.

"Well, according to Alice, barring some unforeseen circumstances, we should be expecting you to be around for a while." I blushed and looked at Alice, who was studying how panels were in the wood floor. I smiled, and tried to ignore Esme looking at me. I suppose I was then.

"Yes, as long as you'll have me." Esme nodded, and Alice's mouth turned up considerably. God, she was beautiful. I turned around to the fridge and grabbed whatever was closest. Turned out to be macaroni salad. Esme handed me a fork, which I promptly snatched. I _was _hungry. I sat down at the table, Alice sat down next to me, and Esme across from us. "So," I began, the fork hanging in my fingers the way one would hold a cigarette. "You don't eat human food." Esme shrugged.

"We can," Alice said, "But it'd be basically useless. We don't absorb nutrients from it, so it'd basically just be converted to waste immediately." I had the fork half into my mouth before another question struck me. Alice was a step ahead of me though. "We do still have need of the bathroom, but since our bodies require so much energy, and blood is so good for us, we require it very little." I nodded, and laughed a little.

"Did you see that question in a premonition?" I asked, Alice giggled.

"I saw it in your face." Esme smiled at the both of us, and I looked at her. She shook her head helplessly, and laughed. Alice looked at her, but I knew what was so funny. I think Alice probably did too.

"Are you sure you're alright. Bella?" Esme asked, again, like a concerned mother. I nodded appreciatively.

"Yeah, I'm fine, honest." I finished the whole salad, without even realizing it. "As hard as it is to believe, it honestly isn't that hard to believe." Alice laughed and I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Esme looked like she was about to ask another question when she looked at the door, and then at Alice. She nodded and stood up.

"I'll be on my way, get them all out to do something." She walked for the door, "Pleasure meeting you Bella. Don't be a stranger." She was out the door, and Alice and I sat in the kitchen. We talked for two hours, about school, and the people there. We talked about Charlie, and my house. We talked about her haircut, and she laughed when I told her it was cute. In one day, or slightly less, I head learned that vampires were real, I had learned all the facts about them, and I had even learned that types of blood do actually taste different. What a day, huh?

I walked into my house a few hours later, closing the door behind me lightly. I was glad that my head injury was feeling better, and the two stitches I had in the small cut, on Alice's insistence lest the wound reopen, didn't even hurt. Unless Charlie ran his hand over the exact spot, he'd never even be able to tell. All in all life was just about fine. As I walked into my kitchen I saw Charlie standing in the living room with a scotch in his hand, laughing at something. I walked into the living room, and saw Charlie standing in the dim light with Jacob Black. I hadn't seen Jacob in ages, since when I was a really young kid. He used to be a skinny, awkward little kid, but ever since he'd grown to at least six and a half feet tall, and had packed on the muscle. Were I not about ready throw Alice up against a wall and ravage her, I might be mildly attracted to him. Might be. A conundrum presented itself: He was muscled, incredibly attractive, and his eyes looked not dissimilar to that of Emmett's when he hadn't fed in a while. Maybe…

"Hey Bella!" Jacob boomed, stepping forward and hugging me tightly. He was incredibly warm. I could almost feel myself start to sweat. So, no, he definitely wasn't a vampire. Not _everyone_ is attractive because of a blood-born illness causing them to feast on the life source of the living. Paranoia was the first symptom of schizophrenia, or was that hallucinations?

"Hey Jacob!" I squealed as he swung me around. "It's been a long time." He chuckled and set me down. He had darker skin, and brown eyes to match his dark brown hair, which was cropped, and spiked. I remember him as a kid, when he would endlessly help his uncle, Billy Black, work on their old red pick up. Wait.

"Jacob! Is that your truck outside?" Jacob chuckled, and Charlie shook his head helplessly, saying something to the effect of 'I told you it was.'

"No, Bells, it's your truck." He flicked me in the forehead, and I couldn't help but giggle. He had probably been my best friend as a child. The nicest guy too, and probably one of the smartest. Shame that I was insane over Alice.

"Well thank you! But why'd you give it to me?" He smiled and shrugged, taking a seat on the couch. Charlie drained the last of his scotch and muttered something about taking his leave. He didn't like being in social situations, especially whenever said situation involved more than one person. Jacob and I sat on the couch, talking, just like we had when we were kids.

"So how's life in Forks treating you? Make any friends? Any guys I should tell what's what?" Sorry, Jacob, but Alice already knew what was what; she knew what was what before we did. I shook my head.

"I've started hanging out with the Cullen siblings, Alice in particular." I said it with pride. Like she was a trophy. _My _trophy. I liked the sound of that. Jacob looked at me, and he suddenly became rigid.

"Alice Cullen? Pale, short, shorter hair?" I nodded with a smile. He stood up, and tried to smile, but it ended up looking like he was in pain. "Hey, I just remembered, I gotta go help my uncle with something. Are you busy tomorrow?" I shrugged.

"Not a clue. Is your number still the same?" He nodded, and with nary a farewell to speak of, he was gone. Charlie came back downstairs when he heard the door close.

"Is everything alright?" I shrugged. Jacob had changed a lot since we were young. He was a little different, well, a lot different. Maybe it was something about Alice that he didn't like. I'd ask her tonight. Tonight! God, Alice in my bed. Shit, Charlie had said something, or was in the process of it. His mouth was moving was the point.

"-dinner with the Cullen's?" What do you think he said Watson? Well, Sherlock, I can only assume he asked how dinner with the Cullens had gone. Good call, Watson!

"It was great!" Charlie smiled and nodded. Good job, Mr. Holmes, Mr. Watson.

"Are you and one of the boys…?" He trailed off. Charlie really couldn't ask question based on my personal life. Or anything directly related to what goes in, or comes out of my body.

"No." No, none of the boys. One of the girls is so hot she's probably the reason the glaciers are melting, but no, none of the boys. "None of the boys." Charlie nodded happily. I wondered how he'd react to me telling him that Alice was the one I wanted, and if some unknown gods blessed me with luck, would have eventually.

"Well good! Especially that big one, he's got to be at least 25!" He wandered off, talking about the danger of boys, and how they were no good for me. Maybe he was right, _boys_ were no good for me. Insert clever reference to Alice Cullen, and the sexual splendor that is her body, here.

When Charlie was out of the room, I heard a rapping at the sliding glass door. I opened it and Alice sauntered in, looking stunning in a skirt, and blouse. All dressed up, and nowhere to go.

"Hey, Bella." She said sweetly. I sat down on the couch, and she sat with me. I was about to respond when she sat down too, her feet under her. She leaned closer to me and looked into my eyes. "Damn it all, you look stunning." She whispered into my open mouth. I, again, almost responded. She leaned in closer, and put her hand on the back of my neck. Her touch was like electricity. I closed my eyes, my whole body shaking. Kiss her. Do it. I leaned forward, putting my hand on her thigh. She leaned back, and I opened my eyes, to stare directly into her pitch black, soulless eyes. She smiled and her razor sharp teeth caught the lamp light. She opened her mouth wider than it should have been able to go, and sunk her maw into my throat. Blood kicked up, and bubbled in my mouth, as she ripped my jugular out. I tried to scream, but my windpipe was in her mouth.

She smiled at me. Oh, God! There was so much blood. My blood. She sunk her teeth back into me, and the world turned black. I woke up in my bed, presumably carried by Charlie. I put my hand to my throat, to find it intact. I lay back in bed, and ran my hands through my hair. Jesus Fucking Christ. I heard a knock on my window. I got out of bed, and went over to the glass pane. The world outside was black, and my eyes didn't want to adjust. I slid open the window, all at once worried and excited. The dream had only been distant. Half real. Alice's shining eyes appeared at the window. Those beautiful eyes.

"Hi, Bella!" She whispered happily. Hey voice was so beautiful. Dreams are stupid, and so am I.

"Hey, Alice!" I could tell I was practically beaming. There was a second of silence. "Do I have to invite you in?" Alice giggled.

"No, not really, but it _is_ polite you know." I smiled at her and stepped away from the window.

"Well, then, please come in." She was inside my room in a heartbeat. She was so fast. She smiled at me and looked around. "It's not much, but…" She cut me off and looked around at the sparsely furnished room. She nodded her head, and walked over to the closet.

"It's nice. It feels…home-y." She said with a nod. Anyone else I would have instantly accused of lying, but I got the feeling that she wasn't prone to that. Instead of accusing her I just shrugged.

"I'm glad it feels that way to someone." She looked at me from the wall she was running her hand over.

"It doesn't feel like home to you?" I shrugged and walked over to the desk.

"It's never really been a home. More of a vacation spot." She giggled, but it was more of a nervous thing though.

"How long do you plan to stay?" Was she worried I was leaving?

"Through graduation, at the least." She wasn't looking at me, and the light in the room was dim, but I could tell she was beaming. "Worried?" Teasing, Bella? Watch out, that's some thin ice. Alice looked at me and folded her arms over her chest.

"No. Terrified." Teasing back, Alice? My word. I giggled and she went over to my bad, examining the covers. "Should I be making small talk? About music and clothes?" I balked for a moment.

"No, I don't want to hear about music from the 20's." She looked at me and stuck her tongue out.

"I'm only like…" She counted a few fingers, and looked up, pretending to do math. "97!" I laughed, only a little bit weirded out by her age.

"80 years my senior. Should I get you a walker?" Alice looked at me, feigning shock, and hurt.

"I'm offended!"

"Oh?" She nodded, and took a step forward. She stopped instantly, and smelled the air. She looked me up and down and cocked an eyebrow.

"What?" I asked. Did I smell bad? Did she have a super nose? Oh, God, I hope not.

"What's that smell?" Of course she has a super nose. Why wouldn't she?

"What smell?" She gave me a look which was half suspicion and half confusion. She closed the distance between us and smelled my chest. God, there's no way she's able to be cute while invading my privacy. "An old friend came over, earlier?" She stood up and looked up at me.

"Who?" She extended the 'O' in the word. I was smitten if I was still finding all this terribly cute.

"Jacob Black, he lives on the Rez' on the outside of town." The Rez'? Look at me, already using the lingo. She nodded and, thankfully, didn't step back. I gave her a look, and she tapped her nose.

"Acute sense of smell," She said. "Wanted to make sure you weren't seeing any boys." She said the word boys like it was a plague. She took another step forward and looked down at my fingers, hanging limply at my sides. "Edward isn't the only one I'm worried about."

"Oh?" She wrapped her fingers in the cloth of my shirt and stood on her tip toes, so that her mouth was almost touching mine.

"Yeah, you're mine." Cue the choir music. She closed the distance between us, and brought her mouth to mine. Her lips were warm, as far as I could tell, but honestly, she could have been on fire, and I wouldn't have noticed. It was all I could do not to fall over. The kiss was soft, and pleasant, with her lips brushing my own. Did she always smell this good? She broke the kiss and looked up at me, with eyes half apologetic, and half possessive.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. I moved my shaking hands, and wrapped my arms around the small of her back. She looked a little bit surprised at that. She smiled and leaned her head against my shoulder, still on her tiptoes. "It's been 32 hours and 12 minutes since we met." I looked at the clock, and nodded.

"Something like that." Was she inhaling so deeply because she was smelling me?

"No, exactly that. Vampires have a perfect sense of time. The sun and all." Of course they did. She moved her hands so she could wrap her arms around my neck, and I swear when her right hand brushed against my breast I almost fell over. "I told myself that I'd give you a day, and if you didn't kiss me first, I'd kiss you." I nodded like an idiot. She was so cool. It was the perfect temperature.

"I wanted to…" She nodded her head against my shoulder blade, and her hair tickled my neck.

"But you made me." She teased, lifting her head up to look at me. Why, yes Alice, I was blushing. Suddenly she broke the embrace and pushed me onto the bed. As soon as I hit the mattress she was on top of me. She was so quick and quiet, like a ghost. She had her legs tucked up against me, and had a hand on either side of my head. I had one hand on the small of her back, and the other she had in her hand. She leaned down and kissed me again. This kiss was more intense. She kissed me harder, and longer. It's like she was breathing me in. suddenly my mouth was open, and our tongues were clashing inside of it. Did she do that? If you asked me how long this kiss lasted, I would have told you to try kissing someone like Alice, and then you tell me if it lasted for 12 seconds, or all night. She did break it for a moment, just to look at me, lying beneath her. I was breathing heavy, and half moaning. She smiled at me and leaned down. Her teeth were at my ear, and she whispered.

"Remember what you said about love at first sight, and how it can be verified?" I tried to nod, but I could barely move from the waves of pleasure rolling over me just from having her breath against my ear like that. "Well, verified." I shot up and she moved with me effortlessly so she was in my lap. She smiled at me evilly, and I blushed. Was she serious?

"You…" Sentences, Bella! "You…" Adjectives! Nouns! Verbs! Come on, Bella, you can do it. Alice was finding my reaction amusing at least. "Love me?" Kind of a sentence. Alice nodded.

"As soon as I saw you." If I had been standing I would have fallen over.

"But you don't know me?" Yes, Bella! Convince the beautiful, supernatural girl not to love you. Good call!

"I know that. I can't explain it." My brain was screaming at me to kiss her. I laced my fingers through her short hair and brought her mouth to mine. Her tongue was in my mouth again, and it was a wrestling mouth this time. I pulled her hair slightly and our mouths broke apart. She tilted her head back with a quiet moan, and I kissed her jaw line, down to her neck. I bit lightly and she grabbed my bed, I heard a rip, but I couldn't care less. When I heard a door shut down the hall I nearly screamed. Alice, thankfully, had the forethought to put her hand over my mouth and whisper 'Shhhh.' We heard no further noise from down the hall and we collapsed next to each other on the bed.

"Maybe we should hold off on…" Say it, Bella. "Sex." Ignore the pressure on your insides. Alice turned her body so she was on her side, looking at me, and I did similarly.

"Please tell me you're not…abstinent?" It's a little bit like how one might react to their lover having herpes.

"No, God no, I just don't want to lose it with my dad two doors down the hall." Alice smiled and kissed me lightly. "Plus, I'm kind of loud." She giggled, and nodded.

"My ears are pretty impressive, and I accidently heard you yesterday." Yesterday? Oh right.

"You did?" I was more or less freaking out, and trying to remember if I had said her name when I was inside of myself. She nodded, and giggled. She moved her mouth to my ear, and as she spoke I felt her tongue flick my ear lobe.

"It was sexy. Shame I couldn't help." I almost passed out. All the blood in my body was distributed evenly between keeping my face consistently red, and keeping me consistently wet. She bit my ear lobe lightly, and I moaned. Make that even split about 80/20 in favor of keeping me wet. Alice giggled again. "We'll wait. I'll make it special. Rose petals, and harps, and little winged toddlers with bows and arrows." She was teasing me again.

"Not _that_ kind of special, you twit." I flicked her head, as Jacob had done to me. It was cute. I liked it. "Just…" Role out the red carpet for my sweetness. "With you." What a perfect pose. Front cover stuff. I think Alice would have blushed, but as she explained to me, vampires can't.

"I can see to that." She smiled and grabbed my right hand in hers. There was a long pause where she just looked at me. She was smiling the whole time, and I quite liked being the center of her attention. I decided then, being eaten by a vampire was worth it for just a minute with this girl. I wasn't about to return the feeling of love, or at least I wasn't going to say it. Not yet. There's a time and a place. Maybe her bed.

"You're beautiful." She whispered to me. I smiled and scooted forward. I figured she found me attractive, else why would she be in the bed with me?

"Not like you." Alice shrugged. If I were a vampire my special power would be to tell when she was about to make me blush, and that time was coming in 3.

2.

1.

"No, better. I wasn't beautiful before I changed." I blushed like a tomato and she giggled. She looked at my blush, and kissed me on the cheek. I stifled a laugh and put on a stern face.

"Are you playing with your food, young lady?" She looked at me, shocked for a moment, and then simply flabbergasted.

"No, honest! My food is playing with me. I had a clever, sexy rebuttal to that, but she silenced it with a kiss that felt a lot like 'goodnight,' and as it happened I fell asleep in her arms as soon as the kiss was broken.

I woke up with a note in my hand, and the last dwindling dances of moonlight playing in my window. _Bella, angel, I'll pick you up in an hour for school. Hope you don't mind that I'm not there. Charlie popped in, and I had to pop out. Love, always, Alice. _Oh, Alice. If there is indeed a rabbit hole, I'm in it.

**Short but sweet, huh? Hope you all like it. I am still looking for an editor. If you're interested, throw me a PM. **

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner**


	6. Distance

**Here it is, two days late, but hey! I have no editor, so I have do it myself, poorly mind you**

The shower water was running cold that day, probably a blessing in disguise considering school was probably the worst place to have your hormones acting up. I ran the previous night over in my head a thousand times, trying to remember every little detail. The way Alice had kissed me, or the way her fingers had felt against my skin. All those little details swam in my mind, trying to organize themselves in a way that would make any sense to me. It had all happened so fast. One second there were whispers of love, and the next I was asleep in her arms, although I believed that was her doing. Not that I didn't need the sleep. Finding out that vampires were real, and you were dating one was a lot to take in. Dating…is that what we were doing? So many questions.

Then there was Jacob. He'd acted so weird when he found out I was hanging out with Alice, and worst of all, I'd forgotten to ask her about it. Maybe I'd drive down to the reservation and ask him about it, the horse's mouth and all that. I'd known Alice for less than 48 hours, and life was already considerably more complicated than it had been, especially considering the gender situation. I'd never considered myself gay, albeit at this point I was pretty solidly classified as such, but the point stands. I was thinking about the looks I'd be getting, or maybe the names I'd be called when I heard a knock on the door. Shit! How long had I been in the shower? I jumped out and threw on a towel. I opened the bathroom door into the freezing house, and called for Charlie. No answer. He must have already left for work.

"Come in, Alice." I said it quietly, like she was already there in the bathroom with me. I heard the door open, and shut. Say what you want about dating something that I was higher on the food chain than you were, but communication certainly wasn't a problem. I closed the door to the bathroom, and began to dry off. I didn't hear her walk up to the door, but she knocked quietly.

"Hey, sweetie." Sweetie? That…I could get used to that. I put my hand on the door, and wondered if I should let her in. Charlie wasn't home, and the cold shower was already wearing off. I decided against it, and began to change.

"Sweetie? And angel in that note. Any more pet names?" I heard Alice giggle, and could imagine her shaking her head through the door. She was so cute. Even when I couldn't see her.

"I was considering baby, but I thought the implications of the age difference might worry you just a little bit." I giggled, and I she pressed up against the door, then slid down it. I imagine that she was sitting on the floor, with her back against the door. I slid my panties up to my hips, and then set to work on turning my bra right side out. Everything still smelled like my suitcase.

"Baby's just fine. Whatever makes you smile." She and her smile. It could melt ice. Like I said, the reason the glaciers are melting. "So, remember last night, when you said you smelled Jacob on me?" There was silence for a moment.

"I do." Her chipper attitude had shifted a little towards the more defensive end of the spectrum.

"Well last night when he was over, I told him I was hanging out with you, and he left in a hurry." Another long pause, half waiting for her to respond. Nothing came from the other side of the door, so I continued. "Why would he do that?" A long pause. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah, I am. Sorry, baby, I can't say." That name sent a tickle through me. Then I caught the precise way she said what she said.

"You don't know, or you can't say?" Alice giggled.

"If I asked you to trust me, but that I still couldn't tell you, would you trust me?" I thought for a moment as I pulled my pants up. If Alice thought she couldn't tell me it must have been serious.

"I already trust you, Alice." She made a sound similar to a coo of contentment. "And I've already forgotten about what it was I was asking you." Alice opened the bathroom door, and I was stuck looking at her with a toothbrush hanging out of my mouth. She smiled at me and sat on the counter. She was wearing a sweater that looked similar to what Bill Cosby might have worn, and a black pair of jeans. She looked stunning as always.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there this morning. Charlie came in and I had to zip out of there. He almost saw me." I giggled, and bent over to spit in the sink, moving my hand, both to make sure I didn't accidentally spit in my hair, and to block out my mouth from Alice's scrupulous view. I turned the faucet on to wash away the spittle and toothpaste, and ran my hands underneath the water. I made a cup out of my fingers, and swished some of the water around in my mouth. I spit that out into the sink as well.

"Don't worry about it," I stepped forward, still not wearing a shirt, although that was on purpose. Alice was looking into my eyes, and I could tell that she was trying not to look down. "The bed was still cool." She smiled and I took a step forward, so I was standing in between her legs. She grabbed the waist of my jeans and pulled me against her. Her skin was cool as always. I ran my hands over her legs, and up underneath her sweater. She had a hard stomach, like she worked out. I could feel that it was toned as well. I imagined her naked for a moment, but only that long. I moved my hands out of her sweater and back up to her shoulders. She still had one hand holding on to the waist of my pants and had moved the other to the small of my back. She leaned forward and brushed her lips against my own, lightly.

Whenever her lips touched mine it was like I was licking a battery, the shocks running down my spine, to my toes, and back up to my tummy, wetting me already. I wondered if she could smell that. Probably. She kissed me harder, again, but without any tongue. She had soft lips. Gorgeous lips. She let me go, and I rested my forehead against hers. She smiled, and I smiled. I could have died of love, just then. I felt it pouring out of her, and washing over me. Love was a hard thing to quantify, or qualify in any way, but when she kissed me I didn't need to. I could tell she loved me.

"We're going to be late to school." Probably.

"Are we together?" I asked, trying not to sound desperate, or clingy, or what have you. Alice looked at me, and held my face in her hands. She smiled and looked me in the eye. Her own eyes were a beautiful amber hue, slightly darker than the night before. I wonder how long it took her to become hungry (thirsty?) enough to get her eyes black like Emmett's had been.

"Only if you want to be." Of course I wanted to be, how could I not?

"Of course I do. Don't you?" She leaned in and kissed me. God, I could get used to the taste of her. I felt her hand sliding up to my breasts. It was like I was on fire, her touch was cold, but as she drug her fingers across my bare skin I felt my nerves exploding. Her tongues slipped into my mouth, and I found myself caring less and less about school. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I picked her up off the counter. I wasn't a very strong girl, but Alice couldn't have weighed more than one hundred pounds. I threw her up against the wall, and she moaned. She wrapped her hands in my hair, and pulled, making me moan loudly into the kiss. I broke this kiss briefly.

"What's the time?" I kissed down her jaw line, and kissed her neck. She moaned and hit her head against the wall.

"Nearly 7:45." She slipped her hands into the back pockets of my jeans, and squeezed. Christ, was that me shaking?

"We should go, school's five minutes away, and the bell rings in five too." She squeezed my ass harder and my arms began to feel like rubber.

"I'll get us there in three." I groaned, and Alice giggled. "Come on, sweetie." She twisted out of my arms, and landed perfectly on her feet. She smiled at me, and grabbed my hand. She began to lead me out of the bathroom, giving me just enough time to grab my shirt off of the counter. The car ride that ensued lasted exactly two minutes and 4d seconds, with Alice only dropping below 60 miles an hour for a stoplight. We pulled up the school, in Edward's car, no less, already fixed. Alice opened her door, when I grabbed her shoulder.

"Alice, wait!" She closed the door and looked at me quizzically. "Are we going to like…be together…you know, in public?" Alice giggled. She didn't even have to ask if I wanted to, it was weird how well she already knew me.

"Bella, my darling, I would be delighted if everyone knew." I beamed slightly at that, and Alice leaned across the car and kissed me softly. We stepped out of the car and Alice instantly went around to my side of the car and grabbed my hand. The majority of the students were walking around the campus, waiting for the bell. Alice and I began to walk towards my first class, getting no shortage of looks. A few people even stopped and turned to watch us. I heard several boys whisper about how 'hot' it was. A few people looked disgusted, but the majority of looks we got were just that of amazement. I smiled and Alice squeezed my hand. Jessica even saw us. Now _that_ look was one of pure unpleasantness. I could practically taste the hate. Alice and I arrived at my classroom just as the bell was ringing. I sighed and pulled her into a hug outside of the door.

"I'll see you at lunch?" She asked, putting her hand on my stomach, and playing with a loose string on my shirt. I laughed and feigned trepidation.

"I don't know, with all your siblings," I winked when I said that. "Can't I have you all to myself?" Alice giggled. She got up on her tip toes and kissed me lightly, both of us ignoring a few lingering eyes.

"You should be so lucky." Oh, Alice. I have no delusions about luck. My first class went by quickly, save for a few questions from a few guys. "Are you and Alice Cullen dating?" Yes. "Since when?" Yesterday. "Awesome." It does inspire awe. And then there was Mike, he wouldn't even look at me. It was weird, I hadn't liked the constant staring, but now that it was gone it just seemed so strange. The rest of the first half of the day passed normally, or at least it did until Spanish. Spanish was right before lunch, so naturally I was buzzing to see Alice.

"Fucking dyke." A dike? Where? There aren't any floods in Forks. Oh! Dyke. Right.

"Disgusting." Well the other guys thought it was awesome. It inspired awe in them! I looked back and saw two of the girls Mike had introduced me to yesterday sitting in the back of the class staring at me. If I wasn't being glared at like a threat to the ecosystem, then I was a dyke. Oh the glories of high school, which I was now going to be facing as a 'fucking dyke.' Could be worse. Of all the various nightmares I could have chosen for myself, being a dyke in a high school in which I was dating royalty, and a vampire no less, I would choose this one again and again.

The bell was a hollow ring that evaporated the Spanish room around me, and save for a few dirty looks from those two girls, made the whole thing seem like it never happened. Walking through the halls I noticed quite a few similar looks from girls though, and even a repeat of the same awe inspired faces from boys. It was like they were witnessing a miracle, on top of a miracle. If you're keeping count that is two miracles. One being that Alice Cullen was dating, and the second is that Alice Cullen was dating another girl. I imagined the boys imagining us together. Well boys, in our dreams. Alice was standing on the side of the gym talking to Jasper. If anyone could brighten up a shitty day it was Alice, and accompanied by Jasper, no less, my other favorite Cullen, as far as I could tell.

"Hello, gorgeous." I smiled, wrapping my arms around her waist. Jasper chuckled, and Alice leaned back into me.

"Took longer than I thought it would." He said, leaning back against the wall. Alice sighed contently, and leaned her head against me, like it was so natural. "I could smell it," He whispered that, and leaned in. "On both of you." Alice stuck her tongue out at him, and I laughed quietly. Did all of the Cullens know? Short answer: yes.

"So how was your first day of being Mrs. Alice Cullen?" Alice laughed, and I shook my head. It was funny how self aware being practically immortal could make you.

"Besides being called a dyke," Alice nearly spun around. "And all the looks from guys imagining us having sex, very good." Alice was practically steaming with anger. She slipped out of my arms, and looked up at me.

"Bella, baby, who called you a dyke?" I shook my head. Alice tried to speak again, but I cut her off.

"Does it matter?" I asked, Jasper was behind Alice, nodding his agreement. She spun on him, holding up a finger.

"You be quiet!" Poor girl was about to lose her mind. She spun back on me. "Please?" I chuckled and shook my head.

"No, Alice, it doesn't matter." She sounded like she was growling. I just shook my head again. Jasper walked around in front of her to join me. He chuckeld and crossed his arms.

"C'mon, Alice, what're you going to do?" Jasper said, knowing that she couldn't do anything and still remain 'just another kid.' She relaxed a little, and sighed. She walked into me and rested her head on my shoulder, muttering something about being aggravated. I couldn't place if Alice was a young girl, or a 100 year old woman. Aging that way does that, I guess. Alice turned back around in my arms, and put her hands on mine. Jasper smiled, and looked around the lunch room. There were several eyes on us, but Alice didn't seem to care, and I didn't either. Everything felt right. Even with Jessica staring daggers at us. Alice and I were laughing at something Jasper had said when Edward walked up.

"Well, well, well!" Alice chimed. "Look who showed up." Edward nodded. He nodded at Jasper, and even smiled a little smile at Alice and I.

"Where've you been?" Jasper queried. Edward nodded our way. Jasper looked at Alice and cocked an eyebrow. I got the hint pretty ricky tick, and so did Alice. Edward and Jasper began to march out of the lunch room towards the front of the school, and Alice and I leaned up against the wall, with her stomach pressed up against my own, and her lips resting on my collar bone.

"What're they talking about?" I asked, rubbing the small of Alice's back. She shrugged.

"Super secret stuff." There was a teasing in her laugh, but also a worried edge. I pushed it out of my mind, and she leaned back, so our eyes were meeting again. There were couples all over the lunch room, doing basically exactly what we were doing, and yet all eyes were glued on us. "Hey, Bella?" I nodded, looking at her beautiful eyes.

"Yes, angel?" She beamed at that, and I smiled.

"I can feel your heartbeat through my shirt." She put her right hand over my heart, and giggled. Wow, she was right, my heart was beating a mile a second. She smiled and pushed her face against the spot where her hand had been. "Mmm…" She inhaled deeply. "You smell good." Are you blushing, Bella? Why yes, other Bella, I am. Why was my heart beating so fast though? The bell rang and Alice groaned, with her face still in my shirt.

"Sorry, baby. Class." I quite enjoyed the nicknames.

An impasse: A girl walks into her biology class, to see that she's a tad late and the only seat available is next to her girlfriend's brother, and what's worse is that she is just coming off of a high that would make even the most pot skulled reef worms jealous.

"Hey." I said, taking my seat next to Edward. He looked at me like he was surprised that chairs could talk. He recovered from his momentary stupor and nodded.

"Hello, Bella." Those were the first words I'd heard him say, if I remember correctly. He seemed on edge, like always. The rest of the class passed mostly without words. I tried to start a conversation, but he was always very quiet, even when we had to do a lab, and we were partnered up. I wondered briefly if perhaps the reason he was so closed off was because he had trouble adjusting to the new world, but then again, he would have changed with the world, right? I don't know. I walked out of biology in silence, making my way to the parking lot. I was almost to Alice's car when I was stopped by a hulking mass that just so happened to be Jacob Black.

"Jacob!" A quick hug here. "What're you doing here?" He smiled a big smile and held his arms out in a shrug.

"I was driving by, and heard the bell ring, so I figured I'd drop in and say hi. See if you wanted to hang out. Catch up, and all?" I smiled, and at that exact moment, Alice Cullen came spring up next to me. Jacob looked about as shocked as I felt.

"Hey sweetie. Oh, and Jacob Black, too." She knew he was here. 1 to 9 odds say she had a vision of it. And 1 to 9 odds said Jacob wasn;t going to let that 'sweetie' slip.

"You two know each other?" Feigning surprise for the purpose of keeping Jacob in the black, check.

"We've crossed paths." Alice nodded her head in tandem with Jacob, whose smile had only disappeared a little bit. I knew that they knew each other, but how? If only I were a better detective. Or could concentrate on anything else when Alice was around.

"Well, if you wouldn't mind," I said, looking at Alice. "Jacob and I were going to go get some food or something, catch up." Alice smiled at me and nodded, seeming genuinely happy, albeit worried.

"Okay, love," She kissed me here, on her tiptoes as always, and I must admit I kissed her back, lightly. I wondered if Jacob thought the way the other guys did. I imagined that he did, but only a little. "Call me when you're done." She departed with a wave to Jacob, and a wink to me.

"So…" Jacob said, with his hands in his pockets. "You two're…" I nodded.

"Yepp."

Jacob and I took his pick up truck, one that looked remarkably similar to mine, save the fact that it was green, down to a diner on what could be called the main street. Or at least the closest thing that Forks had to a main street. It was a nice little joint, with a few tables spread out over the small floor space, and two middle-aged waitresses zipping around trying to serve everyone properly. Jacob and I sat down, him ordering a coke, and me ordering a hot chocolate. Snow fell steadily outside, and we sat in silence for a moment, before he spoke up.

"So, you and Alice Cullen. I never would have guessed." I blushed and he chuckled. "Not that it's bad! She seems nice enough."

"Really? Because you two seem to give each other the evil eye every time I see you two look at one another." Wait, did I say that out loud?

"Well," He's responding to it, so I guess I did. "I didn't say I had to like her, just that she was nice enough." He took a sip of his coke and reclined in his chair, leaving me feeling only slightly awkward from the comment I had just made. Jacob swallowed, and cleared his throat.

"So, how'd that happen?" How did that happen? I chuckled and shook my head, running my hands through my hair, and looking outside at the snow.

"I have no idea." That was actually totally accurate. "One second she was in my room, and the next we were whispering about feelings, and stuff." Gosh, I'm so poetic. Come to think of it, Alice probably should have chosen a poet instead of me, that way at least _she _could have put these feelings into words. Hm. I should write that down.

"Well hey, at least you two didn't skirt around the issue for months." I don't think I could have taken that.

"Yeah, I guess so. So how do you two know each other?" He shook his head, and took his coke up again, holing the glass in his right hand and pointing incredulously at me with his pinky.

"She didn't tell you?" I took a sip of coco and shook my head. "Well, shit. Looks like you're out of luck, Bella." Damn it.

"Come on! She told me the same thing!"

"Yeah, well, it's not my place." I groaned, and sat back in my chair. Things had gotten so complicated, so quickly. I wondered briefly, as Jacob and I spoke about his uncle, changing the subject as we did, about what the hell was going on. Between my realizations that vampires existed, and Alice clearly knowing Jacob, but not wanting to tell me about it, everyone was acting so suspicious. I wondered if there was some secret I didn't know about. It really wouldn't have surprised me. I imagined the Cullen's had more secrets than anyone.

The rest of the day passed in a sort of a daze, with me drifting through it, wondering to myself about everything that was going on. I had promised Alice I would call her when Jacob and I were done, but when I got home all I wanted to do was lay in bed and sleep. Everything had started to pile on. I thought back to when I said that all the events of the past few days would hit me at once, and cursed myself for being so prophetic. I collapsed on my bed, trying to get images of Alice crushing a chair out of my mind or of Carlisle with his eyes black as night. God, it was like a fucking bad dream. I pictured Alice ripping some poor human's throat out, her mouth dripping blood, and pits of skin. I tried not to see her claws tearing through flesh and bone, and ending life.

Alice could relegate me to the past tense with a move. Could change me from an 'is' to a 'was' with a move of her clawed hands. I could see my funeral now. With Charlie and Renee standing over my grave, crying, being together for the first time in years. I imagined Alice standing over my grave as well, just staring. I'd seen her cry once before, so I guess her tear ducts still worked as a vampire. She said she was faster than possible too. I thought of tearing the door to my room off, throwing me through the window, toying with me like I was food, but then again, that's all I was really. I can't say when I fell asleep, but I remember the dreams. I woke up, like a gunshot in the middle of the night, dreaming of blood and fury. I was drenched in sweat, and there were tears forming in the corners of my eyes. Christ, it was like my entire body was on fire. I was trying to make myself come to terms with Alice, and what she was, but all I could think of was her arms around me.

It was like I was stuck, in a rut. I'd only been in Forks for a day and everything had already gotten so fucked up. Or maybe that was the drama queen in me, just freaking out because everything was going so well. I lay back in bed, grabbing my phone and punching in Alice's number that I'd somehow already memorized. She picked up almost instantly.

"Bella!" She seemed so happy.

"Hey, Alice." There was a short pause here.

"What's wrong?" Everything.

"It hit me." There was no pause here, just a quick, worried muttering.

"Bella…"

"Come over." It was a little like there was some pressure pushing in on me from all around me. I remember reading about symptoms of a panic attack, and this was pretty damn similar.

"I'll be there soon." The phone line went dead. I put it down, and brought my knees into my chest. I cold feel my world getting smaller and smaller. A knock on my window jogged my mind from whatever terrible dream I was in. I stumbled to the window and unlatched it. Alice slid inside of my room, and looked at me with sadness in her eyes.

"Bella, are you okay?" She was a safe distance from me. Shouldn't _I_ have been at a safe distance from _her_? I looked at her. She was still in that Cosby sweater that was just a little bit too big for her. I really did love that thing on her. She wasn't dressed in some high collared Dracula cape, and she wasn't caked in the blood of innocents. She didn't even kill people. She hunted dear and other game out in the woods. It was like hunting, but for food, and not the sport. She still loved me.

"Could you hold me?" I sounded so pathetic. Alice smiled sadly, and slowly moved to me. She wrapped her arms around me, like she had when we hugged this morning. I was light and loving. Protective, even. "I'm so sorry, Alice." She shook her head, and hugged me tighter. I encased the little thing in my arms, and tried to hold the tears back.

"I love you so much, Bella." Her voice sounded like a choir was singing. Why was I freaking out, being so emotional, and the like? This amazing girl loved me, and it didn't matter what she was. Mom always taught me that love was love no matter who you felt it for. I think at the time she was trying to express that race, class, and creed didn't matter, but Hell, I was counting it as meaning vampires too.

"I love you too, Alice." Right now the little people who operated my mouth were arguing with the little who were in charge of my emotions and one of those two groups were drunk, and the other was just mad that the foreman was up his ass. The little people who operated my ears were telling both groups that Alice was making some sort of noise.

"You do?" I nodded and kissed the top of her head. She inhaled, or maybe it was a sigh, and squeezed me tighter. I pushed her away just enough so I could look into her eyes. She was about five feet tall, maybe five inches shorter than me. I leaned down, and kissed her slowly, and softly. She sighed contently, and leaned into me. I loved the way she tasted. Her lips parted and I slipped my tongue into her mouth. I cradled her head in my hand, and the other I wrapped her waist. She began to tug at my t-shirt with her hands, and I pulled away. God damn it all, I wanted her so bad. Charlie was still right down the hall, and I knew I wouldn't be able to keep quiet.

"Alice, can we…?" I trailed off. She smiled at me and thought for a moment.

"Everyone else at my house is out hunting for today and tomorrow." Oh thank God. "So if you want to..." I kissed her harder and she smiled into the kiss. "Is that a yes?"

Alice drove like a bat out of Hell, and we were at her house in a third of the time we would normally have been. I guess that was normal, what with her reaction time being so great. We were upstairs in a second and a half, with her mostly carrying me. Her room was large and lined with records, and books. I giggled at the fact that she still had records and even a rather large record player with surround sound speakers. In the middle of the room was a bed that was large, and pristine, and still had price tags on it.

"New?" I asked, pointing to the bed. She smiled sweetly at me and walked around behind me.

"Just for you." She pushed me onto the bed, and hopped up onto me. She threw off her sweater, and I almost fainted. She looked so stunning on top of me, with just her bra on, concealing her perfect breasts. I wrapped my arms around her waist, and was about to pull myself up when she pushed me back down, shaking her head. I could feel myself shaking, my insides churning around and around. She brought her mouth to mine quickly, but then broke the kiss. She kissed my cheek, my jaw, down my neck, it was like every part of my body was aching. She wrapped my shirt in her hands, and with a slight tug the fabric gave way.

"I hope that wasn't your favorite shirt, baby." She said, tossing the scrap of cloth to the side. I tried to respond, but my whole body was shaking, and my brain refused to make words. She giggled sweetly, and kissed down my neck to my shoulder. She ran a hand over my breasts and I felt a shock go through me into my stomach. I moaned and she smiled. She unlatched my bra, and pulled it off gingerly. The air in the room was cold, and my nipples were standing straight up. Or that could have been from the girl on top of me who was also cold. Or maybe arousal. She bit my shoulder lightly, and took my left breast in her hand, squeezing my nipple between her middle and index finger. I moaned, and she took my right nipple in her mouth, playing with it using her tongue. My head was swimming, and I couldn't tell what was happening. Pure ecstasy flooded my brain, and for a moment I was blacked out. Until I felt her cold hands unbutton my jeans. She slid down the bed, and I tried to focus, but whatever she was doing, her tongue moving over me, her finger going in and out…God it was all I could do to breathe.

It went on like that for quite some time, or maybe it was only a second. I arched my back, and screamed a tiny bit. My mind went blank, and I fell back to the bed. It happened two more times, within a second. I fell to the bed, collapsed. My vision was fading in and out, and I saw Alice reemerge from between my legs. She wiped her mouth and giggled. I felt adrenaline surge through me, and I pulled her down onto the bed, throwing myself on top of her. She giggled, and I kissed her, throwing my tongue into her mouth. It tasted different, like me I guess. She moaned and wrapped her hands in my hair. I unbuttoned her bra, which had a clasp in the front. When I found that out my heart nearly stopped. She smiled sweetly at me, and I felt my face turn into a grin. I yanked her pants off, not caring for caution. I took her panties off, and caught full view of the glistening mound of her. She had a small strip of pubic hair to adorn it. I looked up at her, her eyes half closed. Her hands were clutching the mattress. I returned the favor she had so wonderfully done me. I licked and lapped at her, and she grinded her hips along with me. My fingers played with the little pink button on the top of her small slit and it didn't take too long for her to hit the same high I had. I could feel her heartbeat though her sex, and she was actually just about normal body temperature.

I crawled up, and lay next to her. She wrapped her arms around me and put her face between my breasts. She was breathing hot and heavy against me.

"Have mercy." She said, through a giggle, I laughed too.

"Wow." Hey! I managed to make words, look at me! She smiled and kissed me lightly. I tightened my arms around her, and she moaned.

"And you swear you've never done that before?" She asked, squeezing my butt. I giggled and slapped her hand away.

"Cross my heart." She inhaled me. "Have you?" She shook her head, and giggled.

"No," She wrapped her legs around mine, her smooth, bare skin against my own.

"How do you live forever?" I asked after several minutes of laying with her.

"It's called negligible senescence. Basically, we either don't age at all, or we just age so slowly that it isn't even noticeable." Just like that?

"Does that make you a pedophile?" She giggled, and shrugged.

"I don't know. I still _feel _17, or 18. Or however old I am."

"You don't know?" She shook her head.

"Well, I figured out I was born in 1901, and I was turned at age 17 by Carlisle. I was in an asylum, I guess, you know, for the visions. Carlisle did it because this other vampire was tracking me, trying to change me himself. He was trying to protect me, and in the end it worked." Wow.

"What happened to the other vampire? The one who was tracking you?" She sighed.

"He did find me, but I was two days into the transformation-"

"Two days? How long does it take?" She giggled, and poked me in the stomach.

"Well, when the blood is delivered through the mouth, or eyes, or nose or whatever it takes a few days to change, and it hurts a lot, just slower. We figured out that you can also do a blood transfusion, or even just inject them with some blood. That only takes a few minutes, but it's insanely painful. It takes a strong person to withstand all that pain, it's enough to kill."

"So it's either be in amazing amounts of pain for a few days, or die of shock from all the pain that lasts a second?" Alice giggled helplessly.

"A raw deal, huh?" I nodded.

"Very." Alice pulled up the covers around us both. "Anyway! Stop interrupting. Two days into my transformation, and by that time I was already strong, and faster than I could control. He got into my cell at the asylum, and was about to kill me. His mouth was so close to my throat…I grabbed his jaw and tore it off. Shoved it through his skull." Shivers.

"Wait, did he want to kill you or turn you?" She shrugged.

"Turn me, I think, but when he saw I was already turning I guess he changed his mind. I think he saw potential in my abilities."

"Wow!" She nodded, looking ashamed.

"Yeah. He's the only person I've ever killed." I squeezed her tight and she sighed. "I shouldn't have given you that much detail." I chuckled.

"I've gotten a lot of details tonight." She slapped my arm and giggled slightly.

"Do you remember them all?" I blushed. I could use a bit of a refresher.

**There you are! Also, thank you all for 4,000+ hits!**

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner**


	7. Achilles

The wind rose electric, blasting snow and ice into Jon Cates's face. His finger tips were numb, and pain shot through his whole body. Blood was frozen on his lips, and against his cool, white skin. Snow clung to his jacket, and he shrugged frequently to brush it off. He walked, in seemingly no direction whatsoever, through the knee deep sheets of ice. His muscles were tensed and ready to shoot, like a spring, every step was measured, every move was careful, but confident. Suddenly, the white out ended and black figures stood tall among the snow. Jon flung his body at the nearest black figure, his clawed hands outstretched like the weapons that they were. With one sweep of his claws, the throat of the tall, skinny figure was splattered all over the snow. Jon flung around and dipped backwards to avoid a retaliatory strike, putting his hand on the ground for support. The figure swung a second time, but Jon scooted backwards, kicking out at the ankles of the figure. There was a sickening snapping sound, and the creature let out a blood curdling screech.

As the figure fell, his teeth sharpened and hanging out of his open mouth like daggers, Jon thrust his hand out and grabbed the lower jaw and tore down with all his strength. The creature's tongue waggled and his throat let forward another scream. Jon jammed the broken jaw into the figure's eye, effectively silencing it. He sprang up, and wheeled right on another two creatures dressed all in black. One struck overhand left, but Jon grabbed its wrist, the second creature threw an underhanded swipe with its right hand, Jon stomped the hand down, shattering the wrist. He spun around, snapping the other creature's arm in two. He shoved his claws into the base of the skull, tearing upwards, decapitating it. He kicked the lifeless corpse into the other charging creature, who easily brushed it aside, only to be met by Jon's jaws at its throat.

Jon spit out the flesh and blood in his mouth. He looked down at the bodies. Four. He shrugged his jacket up to get the bits of flesh and bone off of it. He continued to walk through the snow, stopping only once to wipe the blood off of his mouth, and hands in a stream of frozen ice which he had to break through to reach the miniscule amount of water. He walked at a normal rate of speed, only moving as fast as he imagined a human would, which was still too fast. He eventually happened upon a small diner on the edge of the woods. He pushed the door open and welcomed the blast of warm air. He was soaking wet, and cold, but he instantly took his jacket off, to hide the blood stains. He threw his jacket into one of the booths, nodded to the waitress and continued into the back of the diner, to the bathroom. The florescent light stung his eyes, and he stumbled against the wall. He locked the door, and grabbed a hold of the sink.

He felt his stomach turn, and he gagged, his stomach feeling like it was on fire. He vomited, blood and stomach acid pouring into the sink. His grip tightened on the sink, and his strength smashed the porcelain to pieces. Jon wiped his mouth, and left the bathroom, with the half of the sink in pieces on the floor. Edward Cullen was sitting quietly in the booth when Jon returned. He sat down across from the younger vampire and folded his arms over his chest.

"Hello, Edward." Edward's eyes were dark red, and his scowl looked like it was glued on.

"You reek of blood, Jon." Edward snapped, keeping his voice at a harsh whisper. Jon nodded and rubbed his mouth.

"Yes, our dear friends met me on the road." Edward leaned forward.

"How many?" His voice was a growl. Jon was about to respond when the waitress approached the table.

"Hey boys, we eating tonight?" Jon shook his head.

"Just coffee for me, please." Edward nodded.

"Two, please."

"Of course, sugar." She departed, and Edward repeated his question. How many?

"Six. Two in my home, and four on the road here." Edward nodded and ran his hands through his hair in exasperation.

"And you're sure it was them?" Jon leaned forward threateningly.

"Who else would it be?" Edward shrugged, and they both broke eye contact when the waitress returned with their coffees. Jon pushed his aside, while Edward took a short, curt sip.

"Anastasia made a lot of enemies when she was alive." Jon looked like he was about to jump over the table. His face was twisted into a sickening grimace, and his fists were clenched in silent fury. "I don't mean to bring Anna up-"

"If you say her name again, I'll rip your heart out." Edward growled and leaned forward. Jon was not the demanding sort, nor was he the sort to tell others what to do, unless the situation was dire, however, just then Jon could feel hot fury pumping in his cool veins. His mind flashed back to his beautiful wife, Anastasia. She had had light brown hair that was always messy, and a calm, cool way about her. She was always in control, even when she appeared not to be. He remembered the way that Anna had sung to him when his anger got the better of him, or the way her lips felt against his shoulder. Anna had been perfect.

"I'd like to see that." Edward had stumbled upon Jon and Anna when he had just been turned. Jon and Anna had been on a hunt, tracking a group of humans who had killed and molested, in that order, a pair of teenage girls. Jon had just fed on the last of the group of three when a young Edward Cullen, driven by the smell of blood wandered into the warehouse in East London, and lunged at Jon. Jon, being nearly two thousand years older than Edward, broke his arm in three places, and was about to kill him when he saw a twinge of desperation in the young vampire's eyes. He chose to spare him.

"Damn you, boy, don't push me." They had spent several years together, the three of them, hunting humans who they decided to be evil, Edward's conscience however was made heavy by the murders, and he wished to depart. So Jon pointed him back to the man who had changed him, and with nary a goodbye, Edward departed. Shortly thereafter Edward and Carlisle once again found each other. Jon had given him specific instructions: Don't tell Carlisle where we are. Don't tell Carlisle about Anastasia. Do not, under any circumstance, tell Carlisle about Ana's gift. Jon and Carlisle had met only once. When Jon had been in Italy, and he had met with the Volturi the first time, Carlisle had been there as well, for whatever reason Jon never discovered. The two had spoken very little, only a few words here and there. However, despite the silence, Jon had instantly distrusted the man.

"No?" Jon looked like he was about to paint the interior of the diner with Edward's blood. Edward and Jon simultaneously sipped their coffees, staring at one another. Pour all of your hatred into another man, and then kill them. The mature way to handle your problems. Jon leaned back, contemplating his options. On the one hand he could kill the boy, and leave the diner before anyone could even notice that he had killed someone, on the other he could listen to the boy's proposal, the whole reason that he'd come down here. I can help you with these assassins that they keep sending; all I need is a favor.

"What is this favor? And how do you imagine you will solve my problems?" Edward leaned forward, his shoulders hunched forward, and anger written on his face. Jon rapped his fingers on the table.

"I need you to help us."

"Quid pro quo."

"Quid pro quo indeed." Edward scooted further forward. "The wolves are back." Jon nodded.

"I'd figured as much." Edward looked around the diner which had cleared out considerably. "And you want me to help exterminate the beasts?" Edward shrugged and relaxed.

"I don't know. I only want the assurance of help, if the time comes." Jon thought for a moment. This could be dangerous. Between the Cullen boys and the patriarch of the family they were a very slippery bunch, and then there are the women! They had a seer of no small skill, and the blonde was deceptive and beautiful, two dangerous qualities. Jon did not like the idea of being in their debt, but what choice did he have? The assassins were strong, and he was growing weak. Feeding on the blood of vampires was dangerous, and he'd been forced to several times.

"How would you rid me of my pursuers?" Edward stared for a moment, as if he was trying to stare a hole in Jon. Suddenly, Jon felt fuzziness at the edges of his conscious. A light feeling of being pressed hit him. He pushed his mind back into focus. Edward looked shocked. "I am old, boy." He leaned forward threateningly. "Try to read me again and you'll regret it." There was a long pause as Edward thought about his response. In the end he just didn't respond.

"We could kill them." Jon chuckled, and slapped his palms on the table.

"There are thousands of them." He moved to stand up. "And there are only eight of us. I want to live, boy, and I intend to do so." Edward shook his head.

"No, Jon, there are nine of us. Our clan has acquired another. A human" Jon turned.

"Who?"

"Her name is Bella. She and Alice have bonded. At some point she will almost certainly ask to be changed." Jon shrugged.

"And?" Edward gestured down to the seat across from him. Jon sat reluctantly.

"She isn't affected by my power. Or Alice's. She is strong enough to even resist Jasper's raw talent." Jon leaned forward, fascination flooding his mind.

"How long have you known this human?" Edward fiddled with his mug of coffee.

"She and Alice have been together for almost one month now." Jon scoffed and almost left once more.

"You've known this human for a month, and you're convinced that she can stop the powers of _The_ _Five_?" Edward nodded.

"Yes." Jon was taken aback by the simplicity of his answer. His mind flashed back to the moment when he stood in the chamber of The Volturi, his wrists, and neck ironed by bars being held by the top lieutenants of the Volturi. In front of him, on a dais, sat the five members of the High Council . The Five. Their faces were hooded, and obscured, black shadows being casted over their eyes. In the center was a smaller council member, but Jon could not decide on the gender until the member spoke.

"You stand before us to face the charge of conspiracy to assassinate the five members of the High Council." A young girl. Jon could feel the cold of the irons on his skin. The chains clanked as he pointed to the member on the far left. The only one Jon knew by name, rank, and appearance.

"No. Only Julius Brutus." The four members looked to Julius. Jon scoffed even then. Julius Brutus. The foul creature had been on the floor of the Roman senate when Julius Caesar had been stabbed to death, and he had adopted the names of the two famous parties involved.

"An attack on one is an attack on all." Replied the council member on the far right. The other members nodded. Jon's mind flashed back to the diner with Edward. To the young vampire time had not passed more than a heartbeat, but to Jon it had been years. Jon was about to respond when his mind alerted him to something. Some small change.

"Edward." The diner was empty. "Run home now." Jon flipped the table to his left, and the lights instantly shut off. Edward was out the window and running in a heartbeat. The diner was blackened, not by darkness, but by something else. Jon could neither hear nor smell anything alive in the building. The world felt empty. He jumped to the ceiling, digging his fingers into the metal, bending it. He still could not see. He tore at the metal, ripping it off in sheets. He tore a small hole and slithered through it. Still, the world was black. Jon used his senses to feel the metal beneath him, he sprinted to the edge of the roof, and he leapt off. The snow crunched under his boots. Suddenly the blackness shifted and Jon felt surrounded. His eyes changed, and his teeth and claws sprouted. His body coiled, ready to leap. He felt an insane calm flood over him. His muscles relaxed, and a voice came through the blackness.

"Please, Jon, calm down." It was a raspy voice, with a slight Scottish accent. "We are not here to kill you. We only wish a word." Crunching came from the world around Jon. He could feel that he was only hearing the creature because it allowed him to. "The blackness is a tool of ours. You can appreciate our need for anonymity, I hope."

"Take this shroud off of me!" There was a rasping chuckle.

"I cannot do that, Jon. You must trust that we are not here to hurt you." Jon growled and the calm receded some.

"You haven't given me any reason to trust you!" Jon felt a calming hand on his neck. A calm, relaxed touch.

"Please, Jon. Give us a chance to explain." Jon felt his bones turn to putty. "I promise, you will not be disappointed." Jon made a sound resembling an affirmative. The creature wielding the voice led Jon through the snow for a moment. The snow deepened up to Jon's knees. They stopped and the hand was removed. Such a simple gesture, the addition and removal of a touch showed the power this thing had.

"Are you-" Jon felt his knees weaken, but he composed himself. "What are you?" The voice chuckled in a hearty fashion.

"Oh, Jon! So forward a man. It's what we see in you, your directness." The snow crunched. "We are a group of what your kind would call assassins. Humans would call us warriors, or rather, soldiers. Forgive me, Jon, I have not walked among man in many years." Jon nodded, a gesture he realized to be fruitless.

"How do you know my name?" Another laugh, shorter this time.

"So many questions, Jon. So eager to learn, that you have not stopped to consider. Search your mind, Jon. You know who we are. You have heard my voice before." Jon's mind snapped back to the room with the Volturi.

"A witness, to your treachery!" Proclaimed the middle council member. She waved her hand to a door to her right, and a man walked out. A mass of muscle, and scars rippling under the warm candle light. All visitors to the High Council were stripped naked, a show by the Volturi of how powerful they were. The beast's manhood dangled between his legs, bumping against his powerful thighs. Jon could not place what this thing was, neither vampire nor human. _A wolf?_ Jon thought. "Please state your name, and your relation to the accused." Asked the girl on the dais.

"My identity means nothing." Said the creature's rasping voice. Irons did not bind him, a rarity for a visitor of the High Council. "I saw this man, late in the evening, with a conspirator, another man, I believe. They plotted something. Words were spoken in hushed tones." He lifted an index finger to Julius. "He was mentioned by name. They met thrice under the streets of Rome. I believed they plotted a death, and I could not have that." The robed figure cut him off.

"Why were you beneath Rome?" There was a pause. The creature looked up at them. His face came into full view. He had a shaved head, and dark black, soulless eyes that had no white. They were not like a vampire's eyes, only pupil, no they were just black. Empty. A scar ran from his left shoulder diagonally to his right hip bone. There were small scars on his forearms as well; in fact, nowhere on his body did he not have scars.

"I was searching for an entrance to a home, one through the old tunnels perhaps." Another pause as he breathed. "I found no such entrance, but instead I found this man, waiting to strike." His finger shifted to Jon, who could feel a growl growing in his throat. Jon's mind returned to the present.

"It was you!" He leaped forward, claws drawn. A powerful hand grabbed his wrists, and a second his throat. He was slammed on the ground, and a small bubble of color returned to the world. Jon fought to clear his vision, and allow his breath to return, but the powerful hand squeezed his throat. He found his muscles would not respond to him.

"Calm yourself, Jon. I did what I had to, to save your life." He relaxed his grip as Jon's claws receded. His vision cleared and Jon saw the dark eyes of his captor. "They would have killed you had you tried for the life of Julius Brutus, but instead, I gave you a second chance. Banishment to the abhorred Arctic Circle. Many would have died, Jon, but not you!" He yanked him to his feet. Jon saw that he wore no shirt, and his pants seemed to be made of bear hide, and pelt. His shoes as well. "You lived!" He released his grasp on the vampire. "And now you are back! Stronger than ever!" Jon gasped, sucking air in desperately. "And perhaps, with time, ready to take not just Julius, but all of the wretched Volturi." A smile pursed his lips, and Jon saw perfect white teeth.

"With time?" The creature laughed.

"Yes, Jon! With time. Now they would kill you, and your pathetic band of Cullens." He spoke the name with malice. This thing knew about them too? "But with our help, you could kill them all! All five without ever making a sound." Jon looked the man in the eyes. He had to look up, considerably. This thing had to be over seven feet tall.

"What do you want from me?" He demanded.

"Want?" The creature responded.

"Yes! You would not help me for nothing." The creature nodded slowly, as if he was just now understanding.

"Jon, my dear boy, we want only to kill vampires." Jon tensed, and the creature laughed shortly. "Not all, vampires, mind you, just those who are deserving." He chuckled, and nodded downwards. Jon looked on the ground, and saw the blackness thin somewhat, and in a circle around him, bodies. Broken, and bloody. There had to be more than one hundred, all dressed in Volturi robes, all with pale skin, but their eyes were all human.

"You killed them?" The creature nodded. "Without alerting them?" The creature chuckled once more and held out his hands in a swath, turning all around.

"You could have this power, Jon! 139 vampires killed, and not so much as a sound! Do you want this power?" He looked all around, stunned. He nodded his head, stupefied. Jon Cates was not one to be stupefied. The creature smiled once more. He clasped Jon on either side of the neck. "Good! Because these," He looked down at the vampires. "Wretches were poised to strike on you and your companion. I suspect there will be more soon." Jon felt himself descend to the rank of student, and the god-like creature before him become a teacher.

"And you will make me ready for such a battle?" The teacher nodded.

"Jon," He snapped. He turned and wrapped a powerful arm around Jon's shoulders. His other hand sweeping away the remaining blackness. There, in the snow, kneeled ten figures. Four men and six women. All were of various heights, and builds, Jon even picked out two vampires. "These are my student! Pupils, of the blackness." They all stood up. They wore white wraps around their lower sections, and the women wore a second around their chests.

"Pupils?" Jon asked. The creature laughed.

"Others like you! Children who I have found worthy of serving our cause." He said 'our' as if it were exclusionary to Jon. "Tools to be used, by me."

"Tools?" The creature released Jon.

"Think, boy!" He roared. "Do not repeat what I say like a common parrot! Use your mind! You are gifted, and surely you know the answers to all these mindless questions you put to me." Jon looked down. He felt as if he was falling. Like he was being washed under the ocean.

"Yes, I…" A pause. "I know." The creature chuckled.

"Good! Now that you have gotten over your fit of stupidity, you may tell me who I am." Jon stared at him. His mind was sharp, and he knew much, but this thing had never betrayed his identity to him. "And _what _I am!"

"You…" Another pause. _Damn this nervousness!_ Jon thought. Jon had not felt so powerless since he was human. His mind flashed back to the room with the High Council. The chains were pulled tight against his skin, and he was kicked to his knees. The creature walked up to him, and leaned down, grabbing his chin and bringing his face closer in one powerful motion. He looked into his eyes. The guards around Jon shouted for him to halt, but he did not head their words. They drew long spears, Jon remembered thinking _why not pounce?_ Their spear tips leveled against his back, but he only laughed. He dropped Jon, and spun on the High Council, who did not move.

"Command your dogs to heel, Hector!" He addressed the Council member to the left of the girl. "I only wished to see the man who I had sentenced to exile! Surely, you can sympathize!" Hector waved a hand, and the guards ducked back to Jon's side. Jon snapped back to the real world.

"You commanded them…" He mumbled. The creature laughed, and clapped once loudly.

"Yes! And then Hector said my name, and for that I had to kill him! Remember Jon!" He remembered the blood. A word uttered from Hector's dying lips. The Council made no move to quell this murder. _Achilles. _Jon whispered the word and the owner of the name clasped his hand over Jon's mouth. "Yes, Jon!" Jon felt a sudden pain in his head, a throbbing, tearing pain. He moved his head to see a young female vampire with her hand on his back. He growled and swiped at her, but the creature grabbed his wrist.

"No, Jon, let her work. When you awake, you're training will begin." Jon felt himself hit the ground, and sleep, something he had not had for thousands of years, took him. The creature, who Jon had called Achilles, looked at the limp body he held by the wrist. The vampire girl looked at him eagerly. The creature nodded and she returned happily to her place in line. He looked at the group.

"Welcome Jon Cates, our newest member!" He snapped and one of the male members appeared at his side with a black coat bag. The creature threw off his pants and shoes made of fur, and began dressing in more civilized clothes befitting a human. "He knows me as Achilles, the name the vampires know me by. When he wakes up begin his training. Let him learn my true name, if he is able." He slipped into an old suit that looked like it belonged in Victorian England. "Do not let him die; he will be useful in our plans." He looked to the North. "I must leave, now, I will return in time." He nodded towards the man who had been holding the coat bag. "Shen will assume command, for now." The man kneeled, and spoke his thanks.

"Master," Shen asked. "Permit us to know your destination?" The creature looked down at the kneeling servant.

"I go to converse with a human; this 'Bella' that Jon's companion spoke of." He began to walk north. "She may be powerful. Perhaps she can be convinced." The creature disappeared in a flurry of wind, and snow. Miles away, in Forks, Washington, Alice Cullen felt a very human chill run down her spine.

**Okay! So! Here it is, after much rewriting! The start of act two! I hope you like the two new characters introduced, the story will be split between them and Bella, and yes, all this will be explained. Please review, as it makes me giddy.**

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner **


	8. Drowning

**7,500+ hits? Surely, no!**

"You have to sleep!" I protested, drawing circles on Alice's shoulder. She giggled and shrugged. Her skin was so pale, and the bones under it were hard, and cool. Like the rest of her.

"Says who?" She asked, leaning back and looking upwards. The snow had stopped falling, and we had come outside to look at the sky, and the world painted white by deep moonlight. She wore an old puffy winter coat, and a pair of jeans. I was bundled up in several layers of the warmest stuff I could find. Damn cold.

"Says…biology?" I retorted. She rested between my legs, with her head on my shoulder. She smelled like a mixture of rain water and old books. She'd been in the library all day, I think. The Cullens had, among other things, a magnificent library featuring books like The Catcher in the Rye, Winnie the Pooh, and everything in between. I'd found her on more than one occasion between two massive stacks of books with one in hand, and me trying to figure out which stack she'd already finished, and which she still had yet to read. She'd even gotten me back into it, not that I was ever really out of it; I just had a lot on my plate with the move, and the pretty new girlfriend.

"I have a rest period where my metabolism drops down to miniscule amounts, and I barely move. It's not dissimilar to sleep." She poked me in the nose. "So take _that_ biology!" I couldn't help but laugh.

"I guess you win." She turned around and looked at me, seriously. I could feel the soft tone in her eyes being overtaken by some sort of weird complexity. Of all the things this mysterious creature was, she was almost certainly a fruit loop. She continued to look at me for some time, hardly blinking, before she shrugged and turned back around.

"You're weird." I whispered to her. She giggled and nodded.

"And water remains wet. You love it." I laughed and kissed her neck. She moaned pleasantly, and pushed me away with her shoulder.

"That tickles." I laughed.

"You can be tickled?" Her eyes went wide as she realized what she had said. I moved my hands down quickly and started tickling her sides. She giggled and almost immediately fell to the ground. She shook and giggled, swatting at me deftly. I'm glad she wasn't actually trying, or she could take my head off. We went on like this for several minutes before we wound up lying next to each other on the porch. Alice was the first to break the silence, as she caught her breath.

"Bella? Sweetie?" I nodded. Her voice was shaking.

"Yes?" She looked down at my hand and swallowed hard.

"You're bleeding." I looked down too. I had indeed gotten a cut while wrestling with her. Shit! I was about to bring it to my mouth when she grabbed my wrist. Now, the sensation of having a tiny vampire suck the blood from the tip of your finger is very similar to getting oral sex from someone who's practiced for years. Which Alice also had. She released my finger, and I felt a wet patch in my panties but tried to ignore it. She kept my finger in her hand and retrieved a band-aid from her pocket.

"You have band-aids on hand?" She giggled.

"You humans are so fragile." She teased, wrapping my finger tightly. I'd been blushing, I suppose. "Are you going to tell Charlie?" Take a right turn from weirdly goofy, to Earth-shatteringly real, and terrifying.

"About my cut?" She looked at me, breaking my attempt at mirth. "I was going to tonight actually." I said, half lying. She would drop me off, and then wait in the driveway while I told him, just in case I needed a place to stay. I didn't think Charlie would react poorly, so much as I thought he might not know how to react, and I'd want to stay at Alice's for the night. She nodded. "And then our brilliant plan will be put into place!" I said, hoping to lighten the mood. She giggled and snuggled closer to me. The moonlight danced off the snow. I wondered briefly if that had any affect on Alice, since it was still sunlight. I figured it had to be direct to have any lasting affect. Alice hummed for a moment, and then a strangely beautiful sound came from her.

_Fog lifts from the harbor, dawn goes down to day  
An agent crests the shadows of the nearby alleyway  
Piles of broken bricks, sign posts on the path  
Every moment points towards the aftermath_

Sailors straggle back from their nights out on the town  
Hopeless urchins from the city gather round  
Spies from imperial China wash in with the tide  
Every battle heads toward surrender towards both sides

Her voice was beautiful, in a surprising way, if that makes any sense.

"That was very good." I said, a little bit dumbfounded by her singing. She shrugged, and continued to hum. She looked up at the sky and pointed to a dim star.

"That one right there is almost 600 million years away." She pointed to the one next to it. "And that one is only 26 years away." I looked at her, then back to the sky. The little thing liked astronomy? And reading? Alice Cullen marches down a street in Washington D.C. with a sign reading 'Women's Suffrage!' on it. I hate to say the obvious statement about a feminist being a lesbian, but…well…

"Were you a Suffragist?" I asked, and she shot up, and looked down at me, pantomiming a sign in her hands.

"What do you think?" I laughed and stood up.

"So you stood in front of the capitol with Alice Paul, waving signs?" She giggled.

"Actually, yes." She put her hands down and began to walk in a small circle, with one foot in front of the other. "Alice Paul was really nice, really, _really_ stubborn, and it was impossible to carry on a conversation with her, but she was nice." I laughed. The efficacy of having a tiny vampire on your side in politics was not lost on me. Alice continued to hum, and held out her hand with a smile. I graciously took it and she pulled me in, we began to dance in a half confused, weird way. We giggled as neither of us was leading, and then we both were. The humming became the song again:

_Bells ring in the tower, wolves howl in the hills  
Chalk marks show up on a few high windowsills  
And a rabbit gives up somewhere, and a dozen hawks descend  
Every moment leads toward its own sad end_

Ships loosed from their moorings capsize and then they're gone  
Sailors with no captains watch awhile and then move on  
And an agent crests the shadows and I head in her direction  
All roads lead toward the same blocked intersection

"Wait!" I said, letting the vampire go. Was it possible? "Are you singing the Mountain Goats?" Observe now, two human beings operating on the exact same wavelength. Well, not exactly two _human _beings, but it's all the same, right? She nodded, and took a step forward. She played with the bottom of my jacket, and I put my hand on her cheek, and tried not to cry. "Alice Cullen, I will marry you right now." She giggled, and I cocked an eye brow. "It's funny that you think I'm kidding."

"It's only been a month."

"It only took me a song and a half to know I loved the Mountain Goats." She giggled and rolled her eyes.

"I'll marry you on one condition!" She proclaimed. The lifeboat that was my heart began to sink. Conditions.

"And what condition is that?" She wrapped her arms around my waist and out her face in my shirt, making an 'hmmmmm…' sound.

"You have to wear the tux." I blanched. I could barely pull off _girl's_ clothes.

"It looks like we'll never be, then!" She laughed. Christ alive, it was like some sort of spell was on me. She slipped her hands up my shirt and suddenly my signals got all jammed. She drew circles around my belly button. Porcelain skin, and eyes the color of blood. Alice hadn't been hunting in a while. She whispered something, but the air traffic controller in my head was currently on a coffee break trying to score with the cute girl who painted the white matter in my brain. She poked my forehead.

"Are you listening to me?" She asked, quizzically.

"Not a word, darling." I shrugged. She pinched my stomach fat, and I squeaked. She smiled at me and checked her watch, which was more for my benefit than hers.

"It's nearly seven." I nodded. It was nearly seven. I considered Charlie's revolver that he carried on his belt. I wondered if Alice could stop a bullet. She looked at me and smiled. "It'll be fine." I nodded, but my stomach began to turn. She grabbed my hand and began walking, if you could call anything Alice did walking, it was really more like dancing in a direction.

I followed, hoping she'd drive slowly.

My house smelled like scotch and cigarettes. I was, at that moment, incredibly happy I was gay. Say what you want (only don't) about being gay, but the smell was certainly better. Or maybe it was just a difference between being a man and a woman. I tried to calm the thumping metronome in my chest, but the damn thing was playing a beat not dissimilar to one you might head from an electric Ska band that someone sped up. What a badly worded metaphor.

"Hey, Bella." Charlie called from the kitchen. I smelled pizza. A thousand pizza commercials ran through my head, and I tried to keep the contents of my stomach down. Pizza was good, but at that moment I'd have been okay if all the food in my home went to some starving creature in one of those sandy countries that Bono was always writing songs about.

"Hey, dad." I'd gotten good at calling him that. I gladly accept this daughter of the year award. "Can we talk?" Force out words. Those three were pretty solid, just a few more.

"Sure, what's up?" He was wiping off a glass and he tossed the towel over his shoulder. In another life he could have been a bartender. Or maybe a housewife. What had he asked? What's up? I don't know! Stop asking me things!

"Um…" This house is an autoclave.

"What is it, honey?" Bridging the gap between Hari and Kari brought to you by Charlie Swan.

"You remember Alice, right? She's been over a few times." He nodded, cocking an eye brow. She had just been over for dinner yesterday. She was actually over nearly everyday, either picking me up for school, or helping me cook dinner. God, we were barely ever apart.

"What about her?" I surrender, I'll go to the POW camps, and do whatever you want, just let this conversation be over.

"We're dating." What?

"What?" Is there an echo in here?

"Yes." A long pause.

"So are you…?" Gay is a big word, I guess. I nod, and he leans against the counter. He looked at me then, with a mixture of confusion, and utter speechlessness, but not the hate I had thought he'd feel. How often does my tense change?

"Yes." He sighed and put his hands on the top of his head, like he'd just run a sprint.

"Since?" I thought back to all the ways that I had always been subtly different. All the ways I had thought about boys and about girls over the years. I thought about my half boyfriend, and how awkward kissing him had been.

"Since…as long as I can remember." He nodded, and rubbed his hands on his jeans. He screwed up his face in thought. I thought of Alice in her car in the driveway. If I whispered her name she would be in here in a heartbeat. This is the part where he should go insane with rage, and attack me, right?

"Well, that's a load off my mind!" He proclaimed with a chuckle. I was shocked.

"What?" He walked over to me, and wrapped me in a hug that was easier than any contact he and I had ever had.

"I thought you were going to say you were pregnant! I'd sort of assumed you were dating one of her brother's." He chuckled again. I imagined Alice laughing in her car.

"What?" There's that damned echo again.

"I'm happy for you!" He said, releasing me. He did seem genuinely pleased. I could hardly speak. He looked at me. "She's a nice girl, and she can't get you pregnant, so I'm happy for you." He continued to do what he had been doing when I was walking in, which I suppose was the dishes. "However," He pulled a knife out of the sink. "I still need to have a talk with her." Theatricality and deception: still terrifying.

"Well, she's outside…" I said after several agonizing seconds. He nodded.

"Is she staying?" His short lived show of emotion had passed.

"Is that okay?" He tapped the oven with his foot.

"I made pizza." No, you did not.

"You _made_ pizza?"

"I ordered pizza!" Short sentences, very little gesticulation, no readable emotion. He was back to Charlie. I smiled and went to retrieve my Alice.

People say that they're lonely all the time. I wasn't, at that moment later that evening, lonely just alone. Alice had gone, and Charlie had to work a night shift, so I was sitting on my couch reading a Jane Austen novel, you know the one. The dinner conversation had been light hearted, but ultimately not one that I'd like to repeat. Alice and Charlie didn't get along too well. Turns out opposites do not attract. I flipped the old musty pages and thought about the heroine of the story. I could practically see myself in her role. Everything being so perfect, so…untouched. They call that the calm before the storm.

I very swiftly grew restless, which was not uncommon for me after a day that had been so charged with absolutely nothing. My day had been little more than spending time with Alice, as Fridays often are. Or most days actually. I put the book down almost in tandem with the clock striking ten PM. I groaned. I didn't want to go to bed, but Alice wouldn't be back for a day or two, and Jacob was as busy as he'd ever been doing stuff for the tribe. Suddenly, as if by some form of telepathy my cell phone began to ring. I checked the caller ID, a habit I'd gotten into ever since I'd gonna hate-calls from a few of my charming schoolmates. It was Angela, and I couldn't help but smile. She had been one of the very few people who hadn't shunned me. She'd even been supportive, and I guess you could call what we had friendship. She wasn't entirely comfortable with my sexuality, but she didn't call me names under her breath, and she was trying her best so she was ahead!

"Hey, Angela." Silence. She always did this. She was a shy girl, and she seemed to forget what she wanted to say between dialing a number, and the person picking up.

"Hey, Bella." There we go. "I'm bored." That wasn't so hard. I laughed and leaned my head back.

"Me too." Angela giggled.

"No Alice?" Everyone in town was used to the Cullens going out of town a few weekends a month, it was just what they did. I made the appropriate nugatory noise, and she laughed a little more. "Miss her?" Whoa, she was asking after my feelings towards Alice! Way to go!

"I do, considerably." She laughed.

"Well, I was going to go to the movies in Port Angeles, and I'm not above bringing you along out of pity." I could hear her smiling, and I laughed along. She was really on a roll tonight.

"Oh? And will anyone else be tagging along?" There was a long pause.

"Ben." She was blushing.

"You're inviting me on a date with you and Ben?" Another long pause.

"I don't want him to try anything, I don't think I'm ready." I laughed. A movie with Angela sounded fun, and Ben wasn't a bad guy, but playing buffer wasn't my ideal way of spending my night.

"Just tell him that." Another long pause. This girl was an artist, and pauses were her medium.

"Okay. I think I will. Thank you Bella." Goodbyes were said, and the conversation was over. I put the phone down on the table, and stared at it. My circle of friends had gone from slim to almost none with my coming out, and that meant most of my nights that weren't spent with Alice were spent with a book. I felt my thoughts drift back to her. To her soft arms wrapped around me. I plodded up the stairs, flopped onto my bed, sighed, and slipped into sleep. The world when I woke up was covered in white, and I didn't even get out of bed. I slipped in and out of blissful sleep all morning. In my apathetic laziness many things occurred to me.

Marie Alice Cullen was going to kill me. The strangeness of that thought shook me slightly. Not her specifically, mind you, but because of knowing her, and loving her I was going to die. There was still so much she was holding back, so many things that I did not know about her. I wanted to ask her everything. I wanted to sit with her in the moonlight and talk all day about her past, and her future. About vampires, and the sun, about her family, and things she remembered. It all seemed so…mysterious. I thought of something she had said several days prior:

"One day you're going to die, Bella." I had been washing the dishes in my sink. She wrapped her arms around my waist and breathed me in. "I don't want that." I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. She kissed my shirt, and I could feel her very faint heartbeat. "I…" She paused. She dropped it there, and drifted away in the conversation. I threw her up onto the counter and kissed her, giving her sad promises about the future we would have.

On the subject of the future my brain hissed and whirred as wires crossed. No one had said it, but at some point it would come to the forefront and there would be a discussion. If I loved Alice like I thought I did and if she and I worked…I didn't want to die. The future. Vampirism. I shivered. I wanted the power, the life, but did I want the eternal life hiding from the sun? Or drinking blood. I pictured Alice's face, and the shivers stopped. They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, but I don't know where "they" got their definition. "They" talk too much anyway. I missed Alice, and I was always missing her. I slept that weekend away. Or I had planned to.

There was a knock at my door.

I stumbled down my door, knowing that it wasn't Alice because she would be upstairs already. I opened it to see Edward. He was standing there with a half smile on his face, looking like a predator. Why don't you take a seat? Alice acted like she was 17, and she was so carefree, so happy. That was one of the reasons I loved her, but Edward was just so damn depressing. He still loved me I guess, but I didn't care. He was nice at times, but whenever we talked I got a creepy vibe. He wasn't Jasper with his serious tone, but joking jabs when he felt it. He especially wasn't like Emmett with his huge teddy bear like sense of happiness and love. All the Cullen's were almost unbearably great, but he was so…God, was it bad of me to describe him as creepy?

"Hello, Edward." Ice queen. "Please come in." But not that bad. He nodded, and stepped through the walk way with me. I walked him into the kitchen and sat down on the counter, trying my best to look ugly. I wondered if Alice ever thought I was ugly.

"Just thought I'd drop in." He'd done this before, where he just dropped in. Yes, he was attractive, but guess what? So was Alice! My _girl_friend! "See how it's going." I tucked a lock of hair behind ear, only retroactively realizing that some people considered that cute or flirty. Shit. He looked at me sharply.

"I'm fine, thanks." I got that venom from an African tree frog, if you're wondering. He stood across from me with his hands at his side. I wondered briefly how anyone could believe he and Alice were related. She was so amazing, and he was…ugh. Resentment is a disgusting thing, but I was feeling it.

"How're things with Alice?" They barely talked now. I smiled. There was so much behind that little smile that he would never know.

"Great! Thank you for asking." Please leave. There was a long pause. I wondered how different my life would have been if I had chosen him. I imagined a cold, steel life sitting at a table with him. I'd remark about his sexual prowess in a really underhanded way, he'd make a snappy retort, and we'd go on hating each other. I shivered to think of marriage.

"Everything going well here at home? Carlisle says you told Charlie about your…" A long pause here, always a good sign. "Choice." Was your choice to be an asshole?

"I think you should go." There was a weird moment of clarity in my mind when I knew exactly what he was going to do. I could feel the desire wafting off of him.

"Bella, I'm sorry." He held out his hands pleadingly. "I just…I love you, Bella." Christ. I wished Alice was there to smack some sense into him. I realized I was being insensitive, but what else was I supposed to think?

"I'm with Alice, Edward, and I'm _gay_." I gesticulated that word to the best of my ability. I didn't like this. Not one bit. He wasn't looking at me right. A tangent: the smell of Alice's hair is a little bit like the soft earth after there's a rain storm. Edward kissed me. He was colder than Alice, and his kiss was harder, more desperate. I wondered briefly what he thought he was doing. I wormed around, tried to break free. I even kicked him in the groin, and punched him in the head. Did he know I hated this? Was he aware of that? He eventually did let me go, after his tongue had flicked mine a few times. I looked at him. I had slipped off the counter and was now half slumped on the floor. He looked down at me with a mixture of lust and sadness. I wanted to kill him just then. He looked at me, and I think he wanted to cry. What a man. I stood up, and pointed to the door.

"Get the fuck out of here." I watched him go, and then ran upstairs to the bathroom. Saying I brushed my teeth just then wasn't really an accurate descriptor of what I had done. I felt my hand throb from where I had punched him. God, what a shit sack. Of all the things he could have done, shouted, pleaded, begged…my mind went to the darker places he could have gone, and I felt my stomach turn. I threw the toothbrush down, and ran to the toilet. Even my vomit tasted like him. Forcing himself on me…Jesus. I couldn't tell you if I cried, or laughed, or threw up more. I just slinked into the shower, and stood under the hot water for a while. I wanted to wash that horrible memory from my mind. I thought of a song by the Mountain Goats.

_God damn these vampires, for what they've done to me._

**So, some of you may be confused by Alice's singing, but yeah, she does that. Also, it's the Mountain Goats, and if you don't know them then fix that! The first song was Sax Rohmer #1, and I highly recommend it, as well as the second song Damn These Vampires. Thank you to everyone who waited out that last chapter as well. Also! In the OTHER way this chapter ended, Edward died.**

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner **


	9. Plans

**9,000 + hits? You're all too good to me!**

I spent nearly three hours that morning walking around Forks. I had to decide whether or not to tell Alice. After I had gotten over my, admitted, overreaction I had started walking. Alice would be back shortly, and I had to decide what to say. There were so many options, I had to talk to Edward as well though, set boundaries, get some mutual apologies going, et cetera. I ran my hands through my hair and checked my surroundings. I was right on the main street, with little shops up all around me, and a few people running to and fro. I walked over to a bench with a fine view of the street, and sat down. My legs ached a little, and I was going nowhere fast. There were a good twenty or thirty people wandering around, going into shops empty handed, and coming out with small bags of overpriced stuff. Stuff. Always stuff.

I sat there for at least twenty minutes. In that time one man approached me, asking me directions to the highway to get back on his way to Seattle. I pointed him on his way and continued to watch people go about their day. It had to be nearly noon, but the sky was still dark, and snow persisted to fall. I could see why a family of vampires would want to live in Forks. I couldn't help but smile. Between the whole Cullen brood it wouldn't be that hard to assume that they were all vampires. They typically all got 'sick' when it was sunny outside, they were all pretty pale, and their attendance was pretty bad. In fact, it was amazing that they were getting credit for their high school career. However, upon reflection I realized that Carlisle probably had them all listed with some sort of health risk that prevented them from being in school. It may even have been acute sensitivity to the sun. That would be clever.

Another man asked me the same question about Seattle, and I pointed him on his way too. Forks had a tendency to be a town that people passed through on their way anywhere else. It was, admittedly, a neat little town with quite a few reasons to stop along the way. I sighed, weirdly content with my indecision. A third man approached, and I was about to give him direction when I saw the size of him! He was massive! He had to be at least seven feet tall, maybe more. He looked like he was all muscle too. A solid hulking mass of terrible power. I shuddered, half afraid. He was wearing nice clothes though, a fine suit that looked new, and indeed I could still see the little baggy that had the buttons stapled to the inside of it. His head was shaved, and his black beard looked funny all covered in white. Then there were his eyes. They were pale blue orbs of, dare I say, knowledge. He looked at me and smiled, indicating the seat next to me.

"Do you mind if I sit down, young lady?" His accent was raspy and Scottish, and weirdly comforting. I nodded and scooted over, which for some reason everyone always does, but I felt that he might actually need the room. He nodded and sat down. Groaning as he went. "A fine day." I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic but his tone was friendly, and I honestly didn't have much else to do.

"Depends on your definition of 'fine.'" I retorted. He chuckled and nodded to himself more than to me. We sat for a moment, while he nodded to a woman walking a dog, and I waived hello. "So, are you from out of town?" I guessed. He nodded.

"Very far out of town." He confirmed, he looked at me. "And you're a native?" His body language and manners of speech were very peculiar.

"As of last month, yes." He chuckled.

"Truly? I would never have placed that. You seem so familiar here." Talking to him was easy. He extended his massive hand. "My name is John Walter." I placed my hand on his, and he kissed my knuckle. Oddly enough, the typically strange gesture seemed to fit him, and that made it the most normal thing he could have done. In fact, it would only have been strange had he not done it.

"Isabella Swan. So what're you doing in Forks Mr. Walter?" I asked, as he returned me my hand. He looked about the street, and breathed in the cool air.

"I had a surplus of time, so I picked a place and went there." I cocked an eye brow.

"Like…by spinning a globe?"

"Precisely!" He nodded, and exuberantly proclaimed.

"So you chose Forks?" He thought for a moment.

"Well, no, I chose the whole state," He held up his hands to show me how large his fingers were. "But an old friend lives near here, and I thought I'd drop in to see him." He nodded at the idea. "I hear he has a family now."

"Who's your friend?" I asked with genuine curiosity. Who in Forks, Washington would know a man like this? That suit's label was Italian, and his manner was Scottish. I could only think of one name.

"His name is William Black," Color me surprised. "He lives on the reservation, I believe." I nodded.

"I know him, actually, and his son." He chuckled.

"Small world. Are you well acquainted with his son then?" I nodded.

"They're family friends." John looked at me thoughtfully for a moment.

"You wouldn't happen to be Chief Swan's daughter would you?" He asked. I was stunned. Who was this guy?

"I am, actually. You know my father?" He chuckled and shook his head no.

"No, you're father had the joy of breaking up a row at my wedding, some years ago. He was a kind man," He brushed back the collar of his shirt, revealing two small scars. "Even when he unleashed the stun gun on me." He laughed heartily and I found myself laughing too.

"That doesn't sound like him now-a-days." I commented. He chuckled and shrugged.

"I was very intoxicated, and I may or may not have threatened him." I laughed harder. "Plus," He stood up. "Look at me, and the boys I was fighting with weren't exactly small either." I felt tears coming to my eyes, as we both laughed loudly. His laugh was deep, and booming. He returned to his seat next to me, and I found myself feeling warmer to him. He was charismatic, to say the least.

"So, you were fighting members of the Quillete tribe?" he shook his head, and folded one massive leg over the other.

"No, I was having a friendly bout with my wife's brother in law, and several of his friends." He chuckled, reminiscing, He looked so far away. I looked at his hands and saw no wedding band. He looked at me, and nodded his understanding. "She died a year after we married." A pause. "She's been dead longer than I knew her, in fact." He smiled sadly and shook his head. "Thus is the curse of young love." That line of conversation was clearly over, but I soldiered on, fascinated by this man's demeanor.

"So you're from Scottland?" He shook his head, and smiled at me.

"Originally, yes, but my home is in a small village with no name, on the base of a mountain in the Himalayas." Wow, that was not what I thought the answer was going to be. He chuckled and nodded, seeing my face. "What is it, Isabella?" I shrugged.

"Well, the suit looks expensive, and you seem well to do…" I trailed off, noticing Alice's vocabulary in myself. He nodded, and looked at the suit.

"All the money in the world doesn't mean a thing if you have nothing to buy with it." He said cryptically. I nodded, though, half understanding. "So, do you go to the high school here?" He asked, pointing vaguely in the direction of my school. I ran my hands through my hair.

"I do, I'm a junior." He chuckled.

"A fine age to be, 17!" He exclaimed, and looked at me. "But when I was your age, I was hardly in school. Rather, I was working on a merchant vessel in India." I opened my eyes wide, failing to hide my shock. What a mystery this man was. Like he'd lived a hundred lives, where as others had only lived one. I thought of Alice, and sighed. He looked at me, and turned so our eyes were meeting. I looked away and he nodded.

"Sorry." I murmured. He sat for a moment. I thought he was going to excuse himself, but rather, he smiled and nodded once more.

"What's on your mind, Isabella?" He asked. If it were any other stranger, or even any other person, I would have shrugged it off, but there was something about him that just begged I answer.

"I…" I thought, and he was patient. "I'm in love with this girl." I caught myself and looked at him. The complete, unbiased acceptance on his face told me to continue. "And we're together, but…" I had to think again, organize my thoughts. "Her brother loves me, and last night he kissed me." He nodded. I thought hard. "But I didn't want it and…" He put a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Does the girl know? Your girl?" I shook me head.

"She's…out." He nodded, not understanding, but not needing to.

"And you want to know if you should tell her." He nodded. "You know the answer to that, Isabella." Of course I did, she had to know, and I couldn't betray her trust like that. I nodded. He smiled reassuringly. "And the boy…he didn't hurt you?" I looked up in surprise.

"No! He would never…he was just desperate, I get that." John nodded.

"Then, you must forgive him." I was taken aback, and I went to open my mouth, but he held up a hand. "No matter how old you get, boys always have this idea of how to get someone to love them. They always want to do something daring, and stupid enough to make you fall in love with them." He chuckled. "We all do it, Isabella. Some of us," There was a long pause where he was thinking, and I was just looking at him. "Do things that are more rash than others."

"But, what if he does it again?" I wasn't afraid of that, I knew he wouldn't do it again.

"He won't. Set boundaries." He thought. "And tell your girl." I nodded, and smiled at him. Just then Jacob rolled up in a van, eying the two of us in shock. He pulled over and went around to the side, pulling the door open and moving to grab Billy in his wheelchair.

"There you are, William!" John said with a laugh, throwing his arms wide. He went to the side of the chair, and on his own, lifted it and Billy out of the van. Jacob looked amazed. Billy chuckled hoarsely.

"Damn, John!" He exclaimed. "You old sonuvabitch! How long have you been in town?" Jacob walked up next to Billy and eyed me, and then John. I shrugged, with a smile on my face. John looked at Jacob.

"And who is this?" He said, Billy looked up at Jacob.

"That's Jacob! He was the one tryin' to make you fight 'im when he was just a pup!" John laughed, remembering. Jacob got ever so red.

"Yes, that's right." He looked him up and down. They shook hands, hard. "Although now he looks like he might have a chance!" Jacob and Billy laughed. John turned and looked at me. "And you both know Isabella, yes?" They nodded, and Jacob walked up next to me. He placed a hand on the small of my back protectively. He could be my big brother if we didn't look so different. It looked like the three of them had some catching up to do, so I hurriedly excused myself. They all gave me fond farewells, even Jacob who seemed distracted.

I walked the streets, towards home, stoically reflecting on my morning. John Walter. I smiled and shook my head. Had I made another friend? Point for me! I trotted along happily, my mind wandering, as always, to Alice. The small pixie-like girl. Her hair short and gorgeous. Her body. The way she kissed me. I started running home.

Sam Uley stood impatiently on the coast line, staring out over cliffs, and the surf of Washington. His arms were crossed, and his face carried the typical serious expression. Suddenly, through a rustling in the tree line behind him, Jacob Black appeared. The younger man looked terrified, surprising Sam right down to his core. Of all the many things Jacob was, he never got scared.

"What is it Jacob?" Sam asked, stepping forward, and resting a hand on his friend's shoulder. His friend ran a hand through his short hair, and walked past him, stepping into the tide a bit.

"Shit!" Jacob roared, with his hands on top of his head. He whirled on Sam. "John Walter is back!" He said, pointing over Sam's shoulder to the town. Sam nodded, this was known.

"Yes, Jacob, he arrived this morning." Jacob got right up to him, and jabbed a finger at his chest.

"He was talking to Bella!" Jacob roared, his face only inches from Sam's. Sam was speechless for a moment. Of all the many things John could have done, he talked to a human? Sam thought about the treaty. Was John apart of it?

"He didn't harm her?" Jacob growled, low and angry. Sam could understand the anger, but there was a threatening tone to it. "Did. He. Harm. Her?" He said, getting angry himself. Jacob kept his eyes locked with Sam's, before turning and throwing his hands out.

"No!" He looked out at the ocean, silently watching the grey sea crash and break. "No, he didn't. He was even kind, but he is never just kind, there's always an ulterior motive." Sam nodded, this was also known. John Walter was a dangerous man, in fact, John wasn't even his real name. They both stood for a long time, just watching the sea move. It calmed Jacob, and gave Sam pause to reflect. Finally, Sam spoke.

"The treaty doesn't pertain to John." He said, carefully considering the words. "And if he didn't harm her, then there's no reason for the leeches to think he had any intention to." Jacob nodded, slowly.

"No, but she'll reek of him Sam. He was careful, he touched her, wore a new suit with only his smell. They'll know he's back." He thought, "The seer, Alice, that leech Bella is dating," Jacob spit into the ocean in disgust. "She'll know that he's touched her." Sam nodded. Jacob hated the vampires, perhaps more than anyone else in the pack. He had this deep seeded disgust of them. Their whole way of existence.

"They would have known anyway," Sam reminded him. "They _do _have a seer, and besides, he's already met with Billy, so what makes you so sure he won't meet with the patriarch of their family too?" Jacob shrugged.

"Then why touch Bella? Why come near her at all? She isn't even one of them." Sam thought the same thing Jacob did, but neither said it. _Not yet. _Jacob looked at him, with a small tear in his eyes. Sam shook his head and looked out at the grey clouds. "

"They can't turn her, Jacob. Not without a war." Jacob wheeled on him again.

"And so what if they did, Sam? They are thousands, and we're a fraction of that! We're alive because they allow us to be!" His voice was loud, so loud that it shook the trees. Sam thought on his words, ruminating on them.

"No, John holds the treaty in sway, and if they broke it, they would not be thousands, only the seven." Jacob stared at the ocean.

"They'd be eight." There was another long pause. Sam looked at his friend. He and Jacob had been close since boyhood, and he had watched his friend with hope, really truly praying that he would change. When he had Sam was the first to be there, and he was in truth the one who had subdued his young rage. Then over the last month he watched as his friend was torn apart, watching a girl who was a sister to him being taken by the thing he hated most.

"They'd be enough." Jacob was distraught by more than just the appearance of John in town. He and Sam were the oldest of the pack, and the rest were young and stupid. Dangerous and angry. Sam sympathized with his trepidation and worry.

"We could fight." Sam insisted. In his heart, Sam truly believed that they could defeat the vampires, save Jacob's friend, maybe even do more still, but the treaty affected them as well as the leeches, and John would move against them. "Persuade John not to move against us. Convince him the treaty has been broken." Sam knew that was impossible. Jacob snorted.

"John wouldn't need to move against us, his subordinates would be more than enough." Sam stayed quiet to that. He knew it was true. John Walter was many things, none of them good for those who were in service of his treaties.

"No, but those subordinates would not be enough against the High Council." They wheeled around, and saw John Walter sitting on a broken log. Neither had heard or even smelled the man coming. "Imagine it! The bodies of the damned leeches, hanging bloody, and stripped from the walls of their beloved city! Burning in the sun." John smiled a twisted smile.

"You want to kill the Volturi?" Sam asked, shocked by how frank John was being. John, however, simply stood up and nodded. Jacob looked between the hulking man, and his friend. "Why?" Sam pressed. John exhaled slowly, and walked up to the boys. He looked at Jacob, and smiled, in a small way.

"Your father is a good actor." He said. "He seemed so friendly in front of your young friend." Jacob growled, and John chuckled. Sam put his hand on Jacob's shoulder. "Don't worry, pup. I don't want to hurt Isabella." John began to walk back towards the tree line before remarking coolly over his shoulder. "A talk tomorrow tonight, both clans, here." And then he was gone. Jacob was gone in an instant, to consult the pack. Sam turned and looked out at the ocean.

_Damn it. _He thought.

_Bella approached Alice, with blood pouring out of her mouth. Alice ran to her love's side, and grabbed her as she fell, but there was a horrible tearing sound as she fell. Alice looked down in horror, to see the razor thin tear in her shirt, and her intestines pouring out of her stomach. Alice looked up, hoping to see Carlisle, but she knew he was already dead and gone. She screamed for help, for anyone, but she knew there would be no answer. They were all dead. Alice looked down at her own left arm, and saw a bloody stump, created at the elbow. She began to scream, as her body tried to repair itself. Bella coughed, and a drop of blood hit Alice's cheek. She looked down at her lover, and saw that Bella was moving her arms slowly up, and wrapping her fingers in Alice's short hair, pulling her down. _

_Alice's lips met Bella's and she felt the rush of metallic taste. Her blood was so wrong, so incredibly wrong. She cried, and kissed Bella back, lightly, and full of sorrow. She stopped when she felt the girl's heart stop. Alice opened her eyes and screamed, looking at the girl. She tried to scoop her insides back in, but the wriggly things were hard to grab a hold of. She screamed, pushing air out, trying to keep the smell of it all from her. If she smelled it she knew she would try to feed, and she couldn't. Not on Bella. Alice cried, and screamed until her tears stopped, and her throat was raw and bloody. Still, her love did not move, nor make a sound. She stood up, her knees shaking. She began to search the snow covered ground for her arm. The blood had stopped flowing, and if she found the arm maybe the cells could grow back fast enough to save her arm. She felt a sweet bliss touch her suddenly, and then she was dead. _

Alice was on her hands and knees in the forest, on her return journey home, screaming and crying. She was delirious with pain, and grief. Carlisle was standing over her, saying something she couldn't hear. Alice knew it was a vision, but the power of it. The loss. The pain. She slumped on the ground, and vomited. It was mostly blood, and bits of flesh. Carlisle picked her up, and tried to steady her. As suddenly as his daughter began her incredible, heart wrenching wail, she had stopped crying, and was moving, faster than he had ever seen her move. The rest of the group was a day behind, and he knew he should call to them, but they would be back soon, hearing her scream like that.

As Alice ran branches whipped against her face, and tore her clothes. She healed almost immediately from such inconsequential wounds. She switched her direction slightly, towards Bella's home. She knew the girl was in no danger, but the implications of the vision, the only vision she had ever had of Bella, no less, were terrible. She felt like her world was spinning, and she could still taste old blood in her mouth. She ran, still, into the wind.

I stood in my room, looking at myself in the mirror. Alice had gotten me a dress, and despite the cold outside, it was the perfect climate in my room for such apparel, especially with Alice returning. I pulled my hair up, and looked at the back. It was cut perfectly, and I smiled. I looked damn good. I couldn't hold a candle to Alice, but still damn good. I heard my front door slam open, and I jumped nearly a foot in the air, gasping in shock. Alice was up in my room in a heartbeat, before I could even look at my bedroom door. Alice jumped on me, tears streaming down her face, and a growl in her throat. Her arms wrapped around me, and I thought of Charlie in his room, asleep after his shift. Alice was mumbling something.

"Alice?" I tried to maneuver myself to look at her face, but she had it buried in my chest. "Love?" I asked, and she looked up. I couldn't tell if she was angry, or sad, or terrified. She swallowed and looked at me.

"Oh, thank you." She said, holding me tighter. She was mumbling about a vision, or something. It was hard to understand it. I'd never seen her so distraught. I shushed her, and kissed her hair. In a way, I was happy to see her like that. She'd always been the strong one, the rock, of the relationship. She'd been so protective, and loving. Even when it was just Edward. Did she know about Edward?

"Alice?" I asked again, she scooted up and kissed me. Wrapping her hands in my hair, breathing me in, still half crying. I pressed her against myself and held her there. Her mouth tasted bad, and her lips were dry and cracked, but she was beautiful, and she was mine. I broke the kiss, and took a breath. Looking at her. She looked so scared. "What happened?" I asked. She kissed me again.

"I had a vision of you, dying." She said, pressing her face into my neck. She had described once what her visions were like, how real they felt, how she felt every ounce of emotion that there was in her vision. I couldn't imagine what that was like.

"I'm okay, Alice." I cooed, kissing her hair and rubbing her back. I was terrible at being supportive. She kissed my neck, and shivers shot through me. She nodded.

"I know, I…" She thought for a moment. "I thought maybe…" I pulled her face to mine and kissed her again. She smelled like Heaven, my own personal heaven. She smelled me, and I considered telling her, I had to.

"Edward kissed me last night." I said, holding her against me. I wasn't strong enough to keep her there, but I knew that I didn't want her to move, so she stayed. I felt a growl go through her. Her shirt was ripped, and her muscles were hard underneath her bare skin. "He loves me, and he made a stupid mistake. Please don't hate him." She relaxed and kissed me harder.

"I knew he would eventually." She remarked. "Did he hurt you?" She ran her hands down my arms, and I shivered.

"No," I said. And in actuality he hadn't. I was fine. I knew how a love stricken fool acted, and he was certainly one. Honeslty, I just wanted him to be happy without me, and I knew that sooner or later he would be.

"Good! I'll kill him later; right now I'm just so glad to have you here." She smiled and half laughed through the tears. I laughed too and pulled her in for another kiss. She tasted better now, more like she normally did. She straddled me, and looked down at my dress with the hungry look of a predator. She growled a little bit, and smiled wickedly. We made happy, desperate love, so passionate and mind bending that I can't even describe it. There are no words for what she did, or how it felt. It was the next morning when we stopped, me from exhaustion and need of sleep, and she from seeing me exhausted. We lay together, under my covers, me pressed up against her cool body, and wondering who had closed the door. Or where our clothes went. I must have blacked out a few times. We lay there, with me fading in and out of sleep, for a half an hour before my door cracked open.

Charlie!

Shit!

His face peeked in, and then instantly spun away with a 'meep' sound. Thankfully I realized that Alice was on the floor next to my bed, shushing me. His embarrassed tone was from seeing me naked, not from seeing me in the throws of love with my girlfriend. Girlfriend. I still got butterflies when I said that. He closed the door, and through it mentioned that breakfast would be in a few minutes. He almost ran down the stairs, and I couldn't help but laugh. Alice bounced back up, and I looked at her. She was perfect. Her milky white skin, her black, pixie hair. My eyes wandered down over her perfect golden eyes, her rose petal lips, her soft features. My eyes lingered on her neck and shoulders, perfectly muscled. Her perfect, small breasts. Her small line of pubic hair, black like her hair. I smiled, and kissed her again. We whispered our goodbyes, and she told me she'd meet me downstairs. She practically flew out of my window, and I smiled as I pulled on my pajama bottoms, when the doorbell rang. I didn't even need to go downstairs to know that she looked perfect again, like she'd just come from home. I smiled.

Oh, Alice. My love.

**So…it turns out one or two of you apparently aren't as versed in how girls, or people, work as you should be, but it turns out that kissing a girl, and forcing your tongue in her mouth when she clearly doesn't want it? Not okay. And for those of you who find this odd of Edward, well, he kind of stalked her in the books, so this is REALLY in character as far as that goes. Also, Bella does forgive him, but not because it wasn't wrong, but because she wants her and Alice to be happy together, even if that means forgiving Edward for being a shitty person. Is that a good decision? Not particularly. Is that how YOU should handle it? Definitely not! But we all make mistakes and Bella has to make hers. ALSO, Edward has to realize his. So don't get to mad at him, because we all get caught up in love, and we all do stupid things. And yes, I know 99.99988% of you know this, but just for that .00022% who does not, there it is. Feel free to tell me how stupid and wrong I am in the reviews! **

** A secondary aside! The more observant among you may have noticed that the story with Achilles/John is evolving mostly separately from Bella's! Well, they will come together soon, I promise. Because, as an actuary, having a story where the main story and the secondary one evolve so separately from one another is a REALLY bad idea. **

** Oh! And I might be posting a one shot soon, when I know more about it I'll start telling you all, but until then I just know it will be a love story between Alice and Jasper, but I really need to plan it out better, so watch out for that on the horizon, probably in a couple of weeks. If you want to read such a tale, PM me or leave me a comment telling me of your interests, so that I might send those interested a link to it when it's up!**

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner **


	10. Doubt

**10,000+ hits?! I am your humble servant. Forgive me my tardiness, I was busy with a lovely young woman, and a few (hundred) pieces of paper. **

I lost all feeling in my legs, a warm sensation shooting down my spine, all the way to my toes, and back up my throat. I screamed, and bit my index finger hard, feeling small tears forming in the corners of my eyes. The world faded in and out, blood slamming in my veins, playing riffs through my mind. Electricity shot through my bones, scraping against my skin and disorienting me. I tried to look down, but my neck ached in pain, and I groaned and leaned back, sighing. I heard a sound, not dissimilar to the sound one might expect to hear on Christmas outside of a Macy's, coming from my waist, and I felt a cool pair of lips on my thigh. I shivered, less in response to the temperature of the lips and more in response to the pangs of pleasure their touch sent through me. The creature, as much my tormentor as anything else kissed up my waist and rested her head on my belly button. Her brown hair soft and silky and her skin slightly colder than it should be. I ran my fingers through her hair and sighed, trying to remember how my limbs were supposed to move. Alice looked up at me, and I looked down at her, our eyes meeting. Hers were beautiful and amber, while mine were a duller brown, not that she seemed to mind very much. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. One of those 'test the water' ideas that only flashes up whenever one is feeling rather potvaliant.

"Do you need me?" I asked, not knowing how dumb it sounded, or how odd considering we had only been together for three months, but our relationship had gone so quickly into a loving partnership, and she has so quickly become mine that I always felt oddly okay with pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable.

"How do you mean?" She asked, drawing circles around my tummy with her finger. I shrugged and continued to play with her hair.

"I dunno," I answered at length, trying to figure out how best to phrase my question. "I mean, you always hear those great poems or whatever about how two people in love need each other, and I've never really gotten them, so I was wondering if you had, and if maybe you felt that way about me." She giggled sweetly and looked up at me with a smile on her face. I blushed and she scooted up. Her nipples drug across my rib cage, and her knee bumped my hip. Every move she made lit me up inside. Her pale shoulders moved with grace, and her fingers scratched my arm ever so gently. Alice did everything on purpose.

"As in, do I need you like air, would I die without you?" She thought for a moment, resting her head against my shoulder, and lacing her delicate fingers through mine. "Yes, I think I do need you like _that_." I admit it now, and only this once, that made my heart sing. "But do I need you in the way that I need you to take care of me?" She laughed. "I need that like a fish needs a bicycle." I looked down at her and she smiled warmly.

"I think I know what you mean." I said after a very long, but really not that awkward pause. She nodded. I did know what she meant, honestly. Right down to that moment I had always hated the idea of being taken care of, and that was one reason I loved Alice, she treated me as an equal. When she did something for me it wasn't because I was less than her and I needed her to do it, it was because she loved me, and wanted to. I wrapped my arm around her waist and held her tighter, pressing her naked body against my own.

"I think you're stronger than that, needing me and all that, I mean if you were that way, needing me to take care of you, then I don't think you'd be mature enough to do…" She paused, thinking hard. "This." She waved her hand about the room, indicating everything. As the hormones from my recent orgasm wore off I realized how insane this was as far as pillow talk goes, and I wanted to change the subject, but something about it kept me going.

"Well, when we started there were a lot of rapid statements about needing, and wanting…" I trailed off, hoping that didn't sound too bitchy. Alice didn't move her head, but began squeezing my feet with her toes.

"Can I be honest?" She whispered. That was never good. I hadn't had any real experience with relationships before Alice, and I hadn't really watched enough television to think I knew what I was doing, but I did know that that statement often ended poorly.

"Of course." She was quiet for a long time then. I imagined us shouting at each other, and I was trying not to get scared.

"When I first said that I loved you, I didn't, I was obsessed with you." I tried not to start crying. It felt like my entire body was about to start shaking. She looked up at me, and put a hand on my cheek, guiding my lips to her own. She kissed me softly, and I pulled her into me. She pulled away, and looked at me worriedly. "I love you, Bella." She confirmed. "It's just that when I _first_ said that I felt so…obsessed with you, and I didn't mean it, and I'm sorry, please don't hate me." Her voice was going very fast by the end of the rant. She wrapped her arms around me and buried her face between my breasts. I'd never seen her embarrassed like this. I held her close, and thought about it. Had I conflated love with obsession? Was I still doing that? This is the part where I should tell you that I hadn't, that I had always loved Alice, and that we worked this problem out right then and there, but this isn't a television show, and that isn't how this works. I didn't do those things, instead I lied. Not directly, but still, a lie. This is also the time where I would tell you what I said, but at the end of the day, words are just words, and I am alone with what I have done.

The next morning I awoke alone, with a sweetly written note on my pillow from Alice, lamenting that she had to go do something with her family, and would be back later that afternoon. I had awoken like this a lot in the past two months, alone with a note. It was the equivalent of calling someone, and having them not call you back even though you saw them using their phone an hour after you called them. I sat up in bed and looked around. I could feel the acid in my stomach moving around, and I felt like I was going to throw up.

Alice and I had been a mostly sensational relationship. Happy, loving, and connected. The feelings had all come so fast, and they'd planted themselves so firmly inside of me that I couldn't quite understand them. A lot was happening within our relationship, but even more was happening outside of it. I didn't know what, but it was. Alice was busy more and more often, and she less often wanted to talk, and more often wanted to slip into my bed and touch me everywhere. She once came into my room when it was storming and just collapsed into me wordlessly. I didn't ask what it was about because I knew the answer: "I can't tell you." Alice couldn't tell me a lot of things, it turned out. Even Jacob acted this way.

The boy who overnight had become a man and was supposed to be my best friend had become something of a mystery. He didn't tell me anything, and he barely even saw me anymore. I ran my hands through my hair and fell back onto the bed, looking at the ceiling. It was like I had found the string in the seams of my life, and upon pulling the entire thing had started to unravel. I laid there for a while longer, trying to sort my thoughts, but it would seem that nothing was going to work, so I decided to get out of bed, and see if I could forget the shitty beginning to the day.

As I showered I couldn't help but laugh at the situation. I was more concerned with the idea that I may have conflated love with obsession than I was with the _fact _that my girlfriend could tear my limb from limb at anytime she so chose. I got out of the shower, and wiped the steam from the mirror with my hand. I looked into my eyes, hard, and tried to see what I felt. My eyes looked so far away, so much older than they should, but still they revealed nothing. I found my way downstairs to see Charlie cleaning out a shotgun, something I hadn't seen him doing in weeks. He almost never needed his revolver, much less a shotgun.

"Hey, dad, going hunting?" He looked down the breach of the weapon, shaking his head.

"No," He looked like he was nervous. "A kid's gone missing, the Morton's boy, and we think it may be related to a few sightings of a large bear in the area, so we're going out into the woods to follow its trail." He was somber. I nodded, and sat down at the table.

"Damn." I remarked. He nodded, and continued in silence as I ate a grapefruit. He looked so tired, and old. Like he had aged overnight. He finished, and grabbed the gun and a box of shells. He kissed me on the cheek, and smiled, his weary eyes looking slightly happy.

"I should be back before you get home." I nodded and he was out the door. I sighed, and went about my day, trying to ignore the awful feeling in my stomach. Alice wasn't at school that day, so the hours of class crawled by slowly, bending and scraping as I watched the clock go far slower than time was actually moving. I still got looks in school, and once or twice daily someone called me a dyke, but overall there hadn't been any acts of violence. In fact, more often than not people just stared at me, mostly guys marveling at the mental image of Alice and I doing whatever perverted things they thought we did. When I returned home there was very sullen looking Jasper sitting on my stoop.

"Hey, Jasper, what's up?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could. It was a very cloudy day out, so there was no reason that I could think of for the entire Cullen brood to skip class. He was sitting with his knees pulled in tight against his chest. He looked up at me and I could see confusion and anger in his eyes.

"Bella." His voice caught, and we stared at each other for a moment. My mind flashed through everything that could have happened. I thought about Alice dying. Some horrible accident. The last words I said to her were a lie, and she'd died believing them. I tried to breathe.

"What is it, Jasper?" He stared up at me, and I tried to remain standing. The whole world seemed so far away, and I felt my stomach burning. I wanted Alice there, to hold me, to tell me that she loved me.

"I need you to come with me." He said, standing up. I wanted him to calm me down, or to do something, but he didn't. He just turned and started walking towards the tree line next to my house. I trotted after him, and spoke.

"Where's Alice?" I demanded. He just continued into the trees.

"This way." He responded after some time. We walked further into the forest. I'd occasionally ask what was going on, or where Alice was, and he would just continue walking and remain quiet. My heart thudded in my chest, and I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream and cry and demand he take me to her, but I remained strong. I felt like Alice was there with me, pushing me along. Occasionally I would trip or stumble, but he would always right me. He looked at me then, when he touched me, like he was sorry. I'd never seen Jasper like this. He'd always been so kind, so funny, and so wise beyond even his years. After walking in relative silence for some 20 minutes with nothing but the sound of my heart, and my heavy breathing to keep my company I heard a faint conversation, or maybe it was a fight.

"-you!" Carlisle?

"Take my-" That voice sounded so familiar. A mans.

"-touch her-" That was someone else I didn't recognize. As we drew closer and the voices should have gotten clearer, they were hushed. Jasper broke through the trees first, and I stumbled out afterward. The clearing was a meadow layered in a thick blanket of snow. It was maybe one hundred yards altogether, but felt much smaller with the trees surrounding it. In the center stood a large group of people. Jasper stood next to me, and placed a hand on my back, and looked at me. His eyes were full of worry. He nodded, I nodded back, and we walked. Every step seemed so long. The whole group was quiet and looking our way. I spotted Jacob, shirtless and tall, standing between the Cullens and most of the young men in his tribe. The Cullens were dressed in their normal clothes save for Rosalie who was drenched in blood and standing near the back. Everyone behind Jacob was shirtless, and muscled, looking like something out of a catalogue for a clothing company.

Then there was Alice. My heart leapt when I saw her, but something was wrong. She stared at the ground in front of her, looking with horror at something there. The group didn't make a hole for me though, so I was stuck in between to Emmett and Jasper staring at Esme and Edward's backs. After a few moments I saw Carlisle nod and Jacob continued talking.

"The treaty says that you may not." He concluded. Carlisle looked at Alice who was still staring at the ground. He bumped her lightly, and she looked up at Jacob. She then spun around to look at me. Her eyes were sad and far away. I wanted to run to her. No doubt, no second guesses, no mysterious meetings in the woods, just her and I. She looked back at Jacob.

"The treaty says I can't kill her, and I won't." She looked at the ground. "The treaty also says that you may not attack outsiders." Jacob looked at the ground. I could place almost everyone from the tribe except for Sam, who was a friend of Jacob's.

"We're not questioning that…" Jacob trailed off. The rest of the men behind him were looking between the ground and him, and then back to the ground. A few of them looked quizzically at me. "But why were they here at all?" Alice looked at the spot again. She looked like she was about to cry.

"I don't know. I just saw them coming, nothing else." Jacob nodded, and turned to Carlisle.

"The treaty hasn't been broken." He looked up at me. "Yet." Carlisle followed his gaze and nodded. Edward turned and put a hand on my shoulder. It'd been a few months since he had kissed me, and we had both made our amends. He was a brother now, and I could feel the worry through his touch. He guided me by the shoulder around him, and next to Alice. I looked at her face, and she looked back at me. Jacob turned his head.

"You should go." He said to the men behind him, who looked frightened. He turned back to me and I followed Alice's gaze to the ground. Lying in the snow, blood pooling around them all, were 5 bodies. Three looked like the Cullens. Pale, lovely, but terrifying with eyes as black as the night. They were lying in various phases of dismemberment, eyes black as night and blood covering their sharpened teeth. Nearby was the body of a horrible, disfigured dog. It was nearly as large as a horse with black fur matted down with blood. I felt my stomach turn as the smell reached my nose. Something lifted off of me and I realized that Jasper had been controlling my feelings. My eyes wandered to the fifth body.

I felt arms wrap around me. I hit my knees and began to scream. I couldn't see anything else but the fifth body. I threw up, coughing and screaming. I tried to focus, but my eyes wouldn't work. Nothing in my body seemed to be working. My screams sounded as echoes would in a chasm. I felt myself crawling, and then I felt my feet leave the ground. The fifth body began to get further away. I saw Jacob looking at me, crying, but not moving. Then Alice's face was in front of mine and she was trying to hold me still, but I couldn't stop moving. I was struggling against the wall that was holding me off the ground. Over time my screams took on syllables, and my raw, bleeding throat took on a new life of its own, screaming the only word that seemed to matter.

Dad.

**Okay! So this chapter was really short and contained no answers, a time lapse of two months, and Bella doubting the relationship and here is why! Because 1. Life is complex and doesn't solve itself in a few words, 2. Time passes between events, and 3. I have seen more relationships fail because of doubt than because of anything else! Also, I know a few of you want to know what's up with the tall man who may or may not be murderous! Well, he IS coming back! However, Bella doesn't know everything that happens, and only some stuff will be revealed to you that are not revealed to her! **

**Yours truly,**

**Avery Tanner **


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